Document storage and processing system for inventors that utilize timestamps and digital signatures

US6418457B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The Chase Manhattan Bank · US

Inventors

• Richard Schmidt · Huntington, US
• Deborah M. Sutter · New York, US
• Leonid Vayner · Brooklyn, US
• Thomas Cahill · Brooklyn, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 10, 1997
• Grant date: Jul 9, 2002
• Expiry date: Dec 10, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/10
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A computerized document storage system for use by inventors to store their work on an invention and to secure their claim to a date of invention, the system comprising a document creator to enable the inventor to describe his invention in a document, a document saver that stores the document with a digital signature of the inventor and a time stamp. The saver prevents any further modification of the document except an addition of: a witness statement, a digital signature, and a time stamp. The system also includes a witness document modifier that only allows the witness statement, the digital signature and the time stamp to be added to a stored document. A document viewer is also included to list the documents stored in the system and to allow the documents to be read.