METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ESTABLISHING AND ENFORCING DOCUMENT VISIBITILY RIGHTS WITH AN ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE SERVICE

• US 20140041052A1
• Filed: 04/13/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Follis, Benjamin David, Aloni, Eran
• Granted Patent: US 8,844,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/605 Copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

Techniques for generating and enforcing document visibility rights associated with a document in use with an electronic signature service are described Consistent with embodiments of the invention, document visibility rights can be established for each person designated to sign and/or receive a copy of a document, and on a per-page, per-document section, or per-source document basis. Additionally, visibility rights may be conditional, such that various events (including the singing of a document) may modify visibility rights making a previously un-viewable page or document section viewable to a particular person.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at a server operating an electronic signature service one or more tiles representing source documents;

converting the one or more files to a single file representing a document package having a file format consistent with a portable document format (PDF);

receiving a plurality of message addresses with each message address identifying a person, of which at least one person is to execute a source document included in the document package by providing an electronic signature to be associated with the source document;

receiving information defining which pages of the document package each person is authorized to view;

based on the information defining which pages of the document package each person is authorized to view, generating and storing document visibility rights for each person; and

communicating a message to each of the message addresses associated with a person, each message having a link to the document package.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to view the document package;

determining which person is associated with the request;

accessing the document visibility rights of the particular person associated with the request;

generating with an image filter module images of an instance of the document package with only those pages that the particular person has been authorized to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights for that particular person.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to download the document package;

determining which person is associated with the request;

accessing the document visibility rights of the particular person associated the request;

generating with an outbound document generator module an instance of he document package with only those pages that the particular person has been authorized to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights for that particular person.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information defining which pages of the document package each person is authorized to view includes receiving information that specifies the pages of the document package that one or more groups of people can view.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating and storing document visibility rights for each person includes generating document visibility rights for each person based on which group of the one or more groups the person is a member.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one group is defined by an account established with the electronic signature service.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one group is defined by a domain name of a message address of persons to receive and/or sign a source document in the document package.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a document visibility right for one person that is to receive or sign a source document in the document package is established as a conditional rule such that at least one or more pages are not viewable to the one person until one or more other persons have signed, with the electronic signature service, a source document of the document package.

9. A system comprising:

a processor for executing instructions stored in a memory device, the instructions, when executed to cause the system to;

receive at a server operating an electronic signature service one or more files representing source documents;

convert the one or more files to a single file representing a document package having a file format consistent with a portable document format (PDF);

receive a plurality of message addresses with each message address identifying a person, of which at least one person is to execute a source document included in the document package by providing an electronic signature to be associated with the source document;

receive information defining which pages of the document package each person is authorized to view;

based on the information defining which pages of the document package each person is authorized to view, generate and store document visibility rights for each person; and

communicate a message to each of the message addresses associated with a person, each message having a link to the document package.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive a request to view the document package;

determine which person is associated with the request;

access the document visibility rights of the particular person associated with the request;

generate with an image filter module images of an instance of the document package with only those pages that the particular person has been authorized to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights for that particular person.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive a request to download the document package;

determine which person is associated with the request;

access the document visibility rights of the particular person associated with the request;

generate with an outbound document generator module an instance of the document package with only those pages that the particular person has been authorized to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights for that particular person.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive information that specifies the pages of the document package that one or more groups of people can view.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one group is defined by a domain name of a message address of persons to receive and/or sign a source document in the document package.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein a document visibility right for one person that is to receive or sign a source document in the document package is established as a conditional rule such that at least one or more pages are not viewable to the one person until one or more other persons have signed, with the electronic signature service, a source document of the document package.

13. The system of claim 112, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

generate document visibility rights for each person based on which group of the one or more groups the person is a member.

14. The system of claim 112, wherein at least one group is defined by an account established with the electronic signature service.

17. A method comprising:

receiving at a server operating an electronic signature service a request to view a document package, the document package associated with metadata including document visibility rights defined individually for one or more persons;

identifying document visibility rights associated with a person having invoked the request to view the document package, the document visibility rights defining which pages of the document package that the person is allowed to view;

with an image filter module, generating an image of an instance of the document package with only those pages the person is allowed to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights.