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Apparatus and method for electronic document certification and verification
| Details |
Inventors: Zabetian, Mahboud;
Assignee: Timestamp.com, Inc. (Walnut Creek, CA)
Primary Examiner: Chung; Phung M.
Assistant Examiner: Callahan; Paul E.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Fenwick & West LLP
The certification of electronic documents for subsequent verification and authentication is disclosed. Pursuant to a request to certify a document, a digital signature is extracted from the document. The digital signature corresponds to the content of the document and is unique to the document. Thus, signatures extracted from documents that are even slightly different from the certified document, or from a document that has been changed, will be different. A certification provider maintains the digital certification signature, an identification code such as a serial number, and other information such as the time and date of certification. The serial number is returned to the certification requester. When verification is sought, the serial number and the document alleged to have been certified are given to the certification provider. The serial number is used to index the previously extracted digital certification signature. The same extraction process is used to extract a signature from the document alleged to have been certified. Then the digital signatures are compared. A match indicates that the alleged document and the previously certified one are the same, and a mismatch indicates the opposite. The certification can be used to provide an electronic timestamp for a document, thus providing proof of possession of the document at the time of certification. It can also be used in conjunction with an electronic mail transmission to a third party recipient, thus providing certified electronic mail. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the present invention, electronic document certification, verification of such certification, and certification in the transmission of electronic mail are provided.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a party with an electronic document can make a request for electronic document certification.
The certification can, for example, be provided by an Internet server.
The certification provider receives the party's request for certification, along with the electronic document to be certified.
To perform certification, a unique digital signature is extracted from the electronic document.
The extracted signature provides a document "fingerprint" that serves to identify the document and to distinguish the document from other documents, even ones that appear to be similar to one another.
The certification provider also stores and maintains certification information including the unique digital signature for the document in association with an identification code.
The certification information can also include additional information, such as an indication of the exact time and date of certification.
The identification code (and optionally a copy of the certified document) can be provided to the party making the request for certification, or to any relevant party.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a document can be verified to determine whether it was previously certified and to determine whether the contents of the document are the same as that which was certified.
This can provide not only an indication that a document was certified, including the date and time that the certification took place, but can also provide proof that the contents of the document in question correspond exactly to the certified material.
This verification aspect can be undertaken by receiving a verification request that includes a document to be verified (one alleged to have been previously certified) along with an identification code.
The certification provider can then locate, from its maintained certification information, the previously produced digital signature (if any) that corresponds to the offered identification code
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