Patent · US Expired

System and method for verifying signatures on documents

US6081610A · kind A · utility

116Cited by
8References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 29, 1995
Grant dateJun 27, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 29, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG07F7/10
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A system and method are provided for producing verified signatures on documents such as checks and affidavits. Initially, a customer who is to obtain a verified signature, at some point in time, registers with a signatory authority, and a secret key, having public and private components, is established uniquely for that customer. When a document requires a verified signature, the customer presents the document and proof of his/her identity, such as a preprogrammed computer-interfacable card, to a signature system. Typically, such a system is to be available at an institution, such as an office, bank, or post office, where such services will routinely be used. The system accesses the archive of the private portion of the customer's key, and generates an encoded signature based, in part, on the content of the document. Accordingly, when a recipient of the document later wishes to verify the signature, the recipient uses the customer's public key to decode the signature. It is then straightforward to verify the signature against the content of the document.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.