Tracking and facilitating renewal of documents using an electronic signature system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10482287-B2
Application number	US-201514799300-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2015
Priority date	Jul 14, 2015
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for managing electronic documents. For example, systems and methods described herein can enable parties to an agreement outlined in an electronic document to add, track, and save electronic signatures associated with the electronic document. Furthermore, systems and methods described herein automatically identify expiration information associated with the electronic document and generate alerts for the electronic document based on the expiration information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a digital medium environment that sends and tracks electronic documents and facilitates electronic signing of electronic documents, a method for automatically facilitating renewal of electronically signed documents comprising:
identifying, by one or more servers, an expiration date associated with an electronic document;
identifying, within a data repository, a node bucket storing one or more existing storage nodes;
generating a first storage node for the electronic document and storing the first storage node in the node bucket;
in response to detecting a selection of an automatic renewal option associated with the electronic document, generating an updated version of the electronic document by generating updated start and expiration dates;
in response to receiving a digital signature associated with the updated version of the electronic document, generating a hash based on the updated expiration date;
associating the updated version of the electronic document with a second storage node corresponding to the updated expiration date;
identifying, within the data repository, a node bucket associated with the generated hash; and
storing the second storage node in the identified node bucket corresponding to the generated hash.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein identifying the expiration date associated with the electronic document comprises analyzing the electronic document and metadata associated with the electronic document for expiration information.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising, in response to storing the second storage node in the identified node bucket corresponding to the generated hash, generating a history associated with the electronic document.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein analyzing the electronic document and the metadata associated with the electronic document for expiration information comprises:
parsing the electronic document and the metadata associated with the electronic document; and
utilizing, in association with the parsed electronic document and the metadata associated with the electronic document, one or more of optical character recognition, natural language processing, neural networks, databases, grammars, or Internet lookups.

5. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the history associated with the electronic document comprises a list of time-stamped accesses, edits, and electronic signatures associated with the electronic document.

6. In a digital medium environment that sends and tracks electronic documents and facilitates electronic signing of electronic documents, a method for automatically facilitating renewal of electronically signed documents comprising:
identifying, by one or more servers, due dates of electronically signed electronic documents;
associating, by the one or more servers, the electronically signed electronic documents with storage nodes;
identifying, within a data repository, node buckets storing one or more existing storage nodes;
storing the storage nodes in the identified node buckets;
in response to detecting a selection of an automatic renewal option in an alert, generating an updated version of an electronic document associated with the alert by generating an updated start date and an updated expiration date;
in response to receiving a digital signature associated with the updated version of the electronic document, generating a hash based on the updated expiration date;
associating the updated version of the electronic document with a new storage node corresponding to the updated expiration date;
identifying, within the data repository, a node bucket associated with the generated hash; and
storing the new storage node in the identified node bucket corresponding to the generated hash.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising automatically generating, by the one or more servers and in response to a performed storage node lookup, alerts for each electronically signed electronic document stored in a particular node bucket within a threshold amount of time from a due date, the alerts notifying one or more parties of the due date associated with each electronic document stored in the particular node bucket.

8. The method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
further comprising tracking electronically signed documents for an organization;
identifying one or more of the tracked electronically signed documents for the organization that are currently valid; and
providing a list of the identified one or more tracked electronically signed documents for the organization that are currently valid via a user interface.

9. The method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
further comprising tracking electronically signed documents for an organization;
identifying the tracked electronically signed documents for the organization that are due for renewal within a predefined time period; and
providing a list of the identified one or more tracked electronically signed documents for the organization that are due for renewal within the predefined time period.

10. The method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising, in response to storing the new storage node in the identified node bucket corresponding to the generated hash, generating a history associated with the electronic document associated with the selected alert.

11. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving confirmations of expiration dates for electronic documents of a first type of electronic document; and
based on the one or more confirmations of the expiration dates for the electronic documents of the first type, identifying one or more indicators of the expiration dates common to one or more of the electronic document of the first type of electronic document.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein identifying the due dates of the electronically signed electronic documents comprises:
identifying that a type of an electronically signed electronic document is the first type;
parsing the electronically signed electronic document to locate the identified one or more indicators in the electronically signed electronic document; and
identifying an expiration date for the electronically signed electronic document based on the located one or more indicators in the electronically signed electronic document.

13. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the history associated with the electronic document associated with the selected alert comprises a list of time-stamped accesses, edits, and electronic signatures associated with the electronic document.

14. The method as recited in claim 12 , further comprising
in response to generating the updated version of the electronic document, providing the updated version of the electronic document to one or more parties that originally signed the electronic document for signing.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 , wherein generating the updated version of the electronic document comprises:
parsing the electronic document for expiration information to identify the expiration date, a start date, and a renewal term; and
generating the updated start date and the updated expiration date based on the renewal term and the dates in the electronic document.

16. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive an electronic document for electronic signature;
facilitate electronic signing of the electronic document by one or mo

Assignees

• Adobe Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Divij
• Saxena Neha
• Pandey Aditya Kumar

Classifications

• G06F21/00

  Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity · CPC title

• G06F21/64 Primary

  Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title