Systems and methods for electronic signature

• US 9,575,622 B1
• Filed: 04/02/2014
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MFTB Holdco Incorporated
• Original Assignee: DotLoop LLC (Zillow Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Allison, G. Austin, Hu, Justin Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ell, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US14/243,128
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 715/780
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

Systems and methods facilitating electronic signatures (E-Signatures) are provided. Multiple E-Signatures can be provided to electronic documents through a simple command, such as a selection of a single graphical element. A user'"'"'s signatures, initials, or other identifier can be added to the electronic document in the appropriate fields upon receipt of the appropriate command or command set from the user.

Claims

1. An electronic document sharing computing system comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by the processor cause the processor to:

host an electronic document, wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of signature fields requiring a signature input from a user;

populate the electronic document with a plurality of visual indicia so that each of the plurality of visual indicia are stored within the electronic document, wherein at least one of the visual indicia identifies the user and wherein each of the visual indicia corresponds to one of the signature fields;

provide a selectable signature command element to the user; and

when the selectable signature command element is selected by the user, remove the plurality of visual indicia and populate each of the plurality of signature fields of the electronic document with an electronic signature of the user.

2. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 1 wherein the electronic signature of the user comprises any of a full name of the user and initials of the user.

3. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 1 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of documents.

4. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 1 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of pages.

5. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 1 wherein the selectable signature command is selectable using a signal input command.

6. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 5 wherein the signal input command is a selection of a graphical icon.

7. The electronic document sharing computing system of claim 1 wherein the electronic signature used to populate the plurality of signature fields of the electronic document includes time/date stamp indicia and a unique identification code.

8. A computer-based method, comprising:

hosting an electronic document, wherein the electronic document is accessible by a user through interaction with a server and the electronic document comprises a plurality of signature fields requiring a signature input from the user;

populating the electronic document with a plurality of visual indicia so that each of the plurality of visual indicia are stored within the electronic document, wherein at least one of the visual indicia identifies the user and wherein each of the visual indicia corresponds to one of the signature fields;

providing a selectable signature command element to the user; and

when the selectable signature command element is selected by the user, removing the plurality of visual indicia and populating each of the plurality of signature fields of the electronic document with an electronic signature of the user.

9. The computer-based method of claim 8 wherein the electronic signature of the user comprises any of a full name of the user and initials of the user.

10. The computer-based method of claim 8 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of documents.

11. The computer-based method of claim 8 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of pages.

12. The computer-based method of claim 8 wherein the selectable signature command is selectable using a signal input command.

13. The computer-based method of claim 12 wherein the signal input command is a selection of a graphical icon.

14. The computer-based method of claim 8, wherein the electronic document comprises an image layer and a data layer comprising the plurality of signature fields.

15. The computer-based method of claim 14, wherein populating the electronic document with the plurality of visual indicia, wherein each of the visual indicia corresponds to one of the signature fields, comprises:

parsing the plurality of signature fields; and

aligning each of the plurality visual indicia with its corresponding signature field.

16. A computer-readable hardware device having collective contents adapted to cause a computer system to perform a method, the method comprising:

hosting an electronic document, wherein the electronic document is accessible by a user through interaction with a server and the electronic document comprises a plurality of signature fields requiring a signature input from the user;

populating the electronic document with a plurality of visual indicia so that each of the plurality of visual indicia are stored within the electronic document, wherein each of the visual indicia identifies the user and wherein each of the visual indicia corresponds to one of the signature fields;

providing a selectable signature command element to the user; and

when the selectable signature command element is selected by the user, removing the plurality of visual indicia and populating each of the plurality of signature fields of the electronic document with an electronic signature of the user.

17. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 16 wherein the electronic signature of the user comprises any of a full name of the user and initials of the user.

18. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 16 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of documents.

19. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 16 wherein the electronic document comprises a plurality of pages.

20. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 16 wherein the selectable signature command is selectable using a signal input command.

21. The computer-readable hardware device of claim 20 wherein the signal input command is a selection of a graphical icon.