TRACKING AND NOTIFICATION OF FULFILLMENT EVENTS

• US 20160149707A1
• Filed: 11/24/2014
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Follis, Benjamin D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,531,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/645 using a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

An electronic signature system is used to procure one or more electronic signatures on a document. The electronic signature system not only facilitates communication between the document originator and the document recipient, but it also tracks the document status through states such as sent, viewed, executed, and fulfilled. For example, at some point the electronic signature system may receive an incoming notification that an obligation set forth in the signed document has been fulfilled. This incoming fulfillment notification is recorded and the document status is updated accordingly. The electronic signature system can also be configured to generate outgoing fulfillment notifications to announce that an obligation associated with the signed document has been fulfilled. The various notifications and fulfillment events disclosed herein can be tracked so as to allow users to generate status reports that reveal the fulfillment status of a collection of documents administered by the electronic signature.

Claims

1. A method for tracking fulfillment events, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first party, an incoming fulfillment notification that includes a reference to an electronically signed document managed by an electronic signature system, wherein the incoming fulfillment notification indicates that an obligation associated with the document has been fulfilled;

recording receipt of the incoming fulfillment notification in an audit data repository that is managed by the electronic signature system;

updating a document status data structure to indicate that the document is associated with a fulfilled obligation; and

transmitting, to a second party, an outgoing fulfillment notification that identifies the document;

wherein at least one of the first and second parties has electronically signed the document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second parties are each selected from a group consisting of a document originator and a document recipient.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a supplemental outgoing fulfillment notification to a third party which has not electronically signed the document.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the incoming fulfillment notification and the outgoing fulfillment notification in the audit data repository, wherein each of the stored fulfillment notifications includes metadata comprising a transmission timestamp.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the outgoing fulfillment notification in the audit data repository, wherein the stored outgoing fulfillment notification includes metadata comprising a notification recipient identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second incoming fulfillment notification form the second party, wherein the document status data structure is not updated until incoming fulfillment notifications are received from both the first and second parties.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the incoming fulfillment notification is received by the electronic signature system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic signature system is used to procure an electronic signature on the document from at least one of the first and second parties.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the outgoing fulfillment notification, wherein the outgoing fulfillment notification includes a textual narrative received from the first party.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the outgoing fulfillment notification based on a predefined template that is populated using information extracted from the incoming fulfillment notification.

11. A document processing system that comprises:

a document repository configured to store an electronically signed document that is identified by a unique document identifier, that is signed by at least one of a document recipient and a document originator, and that is associated with document metadata indicating a fulfillment status of the document;

an audit data repository configured to store an incoming fulfillment notification that is received from at least one of the document recipient and the document originator;

a document status data structure that correlates the fulfillment status of the electronically signed document with the unique document identifier;

a document status module configured to modify the fulfillment status based on the incoming fulfillment notification; and

a notification module configured to generate an outgoing fulfillment notification in response to modification of the fulfillment status.

12. The document processing system of claim 11, wherein the incoming fulfillment notification is associated with notification metadata that identifies an originator of the incoming fulfillment notification.

13. The document processing system of claim 11, further comprising an interactivity module configured to solicit electronic signatures from at least one of the document recipient and the document originator on the document.

14. The document processing system of claim 11, further comprising an interactivity module configured to solicit an incoming fulfillment notification from at least one of the document recipient and the document originator.

15. The document processing system of claim 11, wherein the audit data repository is further configured to store the outgoing fulfillment notification.

16. The document processing system of claim 11, wherein the document status module is configured to modify the fulfillment status in the document metadata and in the document status data structure.

17. A computer program product encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes a document workflow process to be carried out, the process comprising:

receiving, from a first party, an incoming fulfillment notification that includes a reference to an electronically signed document managed by an electronic signature system, wherein the incoming fulfillment notification indicates that an obligation associated with the document has been fulfilled;

recording receipt of the incoming fulfillment notification in an audit data repository that is managed by the electronic signature system;

updating a document status data structure to indicate that the document is associated with a fulfilled obligation; and

transmitting, to a second party, an outgoing fulfillment notification that identifies the document;

wherein at least one of the first and second parties has electronically signed the document using the electronic signature system.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the process further comprises:

receiving, from at least one of the first and second parties, an inquiry regarding a collection of documents managed by the electronic signature system, wherein the inquiry specifies a fulfillment status; and

generating, based on information extracted from the document status data structure, a filtered listing of documents managed by the electronic signature system that correspond to the specified fulfillment status.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the outgoing fulfillment notification comprises a hyperlink that provides access to a secure viewing environment, wherein the second party can access the secure viewing environment only after submitting an authentication credential.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the process further comprises, in response to receiving the incoming fulfillment notification from the first party, sending a request for fulfillment acknowledgement to the second party, wherein the request includes information extracted from the incoming fulfillment notification.