System and method for electronic document interaction with external resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11314935-B2
Application number	US-202016940135-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2020
Priority date	Jul 25, 2019
Publication date	Apr 26, 2022
Grant date	Apr 26, 2022

Abstract

A system and method for electronic document management including: creating an executable document object, wherein the executable document object comprises at least one programmable element; constructing an interaction schema object, wherein each interaction schema comprises: executable logic and a trigger as part of an inbound interaction schema or an outbound interaction schema that associates an external resource with the executable document object; and bundling the interaction schema object with the executable document object. The method further includes: in response to triggering an inbound interaction schema trigger: activating the executable logic of the inbound interaction schema, initiating at least one programmable element of the executable document object, and updating the state of the executable document object; and in response to triggering an outbound interaction schema trigger: activating the executable logic of the outbound interaction schema, and modifying the associated external resource with respect to the state of the executable document object.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for executable electronic contract document management comprising:
creating an executable contract document object, which is comprised of:
setting executable programmable clauses based on natural language clauses of a natural language document, wherein the programmable clauses comprise programmable logic; and
establishing a state for the programmable clauses by setting the states of one or more variables of each programmable clause, thereby making the programmable clauses executable;

constructing one or more logic flows between an external resource and the executable contract document object, wherein each logic flow comprises executable logic and a trigger, and wherein constructing the one or more logic flows comprises:
setting an inbound trigger for each inbound logic flow, the inbound trigger comprising an event at an external resource of a plurality of external resources, wherein triggering an inbound logic flow causes a transfer of data from the external source of the plurality of external resources to the executable contract document object and
setting an outbound trigger for each outbound logic flow, the outbound trigger comprising a change of state of a programmable clause, wherein triggering an outbound logic flow causes a transfer of data from the executable contract document object to an external resource of the plurality of external resources;

in response to triggering an inbound logic flow trigger:
transferring data from the external source of the plurality of external resources to the executable contract object;
initiating, based on the data, at least one programmable clause of the executable contract document object; and
updating the state of the executable contract document object;

in response to triggering an outbound logic flow trigger:
transferring data from the executable contract document object to an external resource of the plurality of external resources; and
modifying the external resource with respect to the state of the executable contract document object.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inbound trigger comprises a webhook.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outbound trigger comprises an action trigger that is activated with a distinct state change of the executable contract document object.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the action trigger comprises execution of the executable contract document object.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein constructing the one or more logic flows further comprises instantiating necessary credentials such that the one or more logic flows can access the external resource.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein instantiating the necessary credentials comprises using information from a user profile associated with the credentials to enable access to the external resource.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein construction of the one or more logic flows further comprises choosing a logic flow template from a set of logic flow templates.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein setting the state for one or more variables of each programmable clause comprises setting states for two or more variables of at least one programmable clause.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein constructing the one or more logic flows further comprises:
associating an external resource with each logic flow;
generating executable logic for the each logic flow, the executable logic configured to define and control the interaction of the external resource and the electronic contract document; and
instantiating the executable logic of the logic flow.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising bundling the logic flows with the executable contract document object, wherein bundling comprises storing the logic flows with the executable contract document object.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors, cause a computing platform to perform operations comprising:
creating an executable contract document object, which is comprised of:
setting executable programmable clauses based on natural language clauses of a natural language document, wherein the programmable clauses comprise programmable logic; and
establishing a state for the programmable clauses by setting the states of one or more variables of each programmable clause, thereby making the programmable clauses executable;

constructing one or more logic flows between an external resource and the executable contract document object, wherein each logic flow comprises executable logic and a trigger, and wherein constructing the one or more logic flows comprises:
setting an inbound trigger for each inbound logic flow, the inbound trigger comprising an event at an external resource of a plurality of external resources, wherein triggering an inbound logic flow causes a transfer of data from the external source of the plurality of external resources to the executable contract document object; and
setting an outbound trigger for each outbound logic flow, the outbound trigger comprising a change of state of a programmable clause, wherein triggering an outbound logic flow causes a transfer of data from the executable contract document object to an external resource of the plurality of external resources;

in response to triggering an inbound logic flow trigger:
transferring data from the external source of the plurality of external resources to the executable contract object;
initiating, based on the data, at least one programmable clause of the executable contract document object; and
updating the state of the executable contract document object;

in response to triggering an outbound logic flow trigger:
transferring data from the executable contract document object to an external resource of the plurality of external resources; and
modifying the external resource with respect to the state of the executable contract document object.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein constructing the one or more logic flows further comprises instantiating necessary credentials such that the one or more logic flows can access the external resource.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein setting the state for one or more variables of each programmable clause comprises setting states for two or more variables of at least one programmable clause.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein constructing the one or more logic flows further comprises:
associating an external resource with each logic flow;
generating executable logic for the each logic flow, the executable logic configured to define and control the interaction of the external resource and the electronic contract document; and
instantiating the executable logic of the logic flow.

15. A system comprising:
memory with instructions encoded thereon; and
one or more computer processors that, when executing the instructions, are caused to perform operatons comprising:
creating an executable contract document object, which is comprised of:
setting executable programmable clauses based on natural language clauses of a natural language document, wherein the programmable clauses comprise programmable logic; and
establishing a state for the programmable clauses by setting the states of one or more variables of each programmable clause, thereby making the programmable clauses executable;

constructing one or more logic flows between an external resource and the executable contract document object, wherein each logic flow comprises executable logic and a trigger, and wherein constructing the one or more logic flows comprises

Assignees

• Docusign Inc

Inventors

• Roberts Matthew
• Selman Daniel Charles
• Lerato Hunn Peter Geoffrey
• Simeon Jerome

Classifications

• G06F40/174

  Form filling; Merging · CPC title

• G06F40/186 Primary

  Templates · CPC title

• G06F40/205

  Parsing · CPC title

• G06F9/547

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title