DESC: FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)
“DIGITAL SIGNATURE”
By
MONITRI TECHNOLOGIES LLP
An Indian Company
B-7, Neelkant Vihar, VB lane, Extn Garodia Nagar,
Ghatkopar East, Mumbai 400 077

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a digital signing system and method. It more particularly relates to such a system with digital signature capabilities that enables a user to quickly and easily digitally sign one or more document at a time in a secure manner.

Background of the Invention
There is no admission that the background art disclosed in this section legally constitutes prior art.
Digital signature systems are known that allow different types of authorizing signatures to be associated with, or placed on, documents. Some of these signatures are totally electronic in the form of a coded binary sequence the merely represents a signature or authorization. A particular class of electronic signatures are replicas of actual handwritten signatures that are stored in either analog or digital form.
Presently, a document or a file is digitally signed by first launching the application, opening the document, then launching some type of editor program to actually create and attach the digital signature to the document or file. With this process, the document or file has to be individually digitally signed, one at a time. Given that an organization, company, or institution can have thousands upon thousands of documents, it can be quite time consuming and cumbersome to generate digital signatures on an individual basis.
When a digital signature is applied to an electronic document, there is often a need to include a graphic appearance that will be displayed on the electronic document to indicate that a digital signature has been applied. The appearance is not strictly a part of the digital signature, but the appearance is closely linked to the digital signature and in many implementation is the appearance includes some feature that displays graphically the validity of the digital signature that is associated with it.
In many cases, users of digital signature software need to specify what types of information will be included in the appearance. Examples of information that might be included are without limitation, a raster image of a handwritten signature, a date of signing, a time of signing, and other similar information. Once the graphic appearance has been specified, there is a need to indicate a location on the document where the appearance should be visible when the digital signature is applied to the document.
In some cases, there is a need to apply only a single digital signature and associated appearance to a document. In other cases, there is a need to apply multiple digital signatures and associated appearances to the document. In certain situation is, it is necessary to apply a single digital signature or multiple digital signatures to a document and to have the appearance associated with the Signature be duplicated on the same, location of every page of a multi-page document.
Prior art methods of specifying where the appearance associated with the digital signature should be located on the document typically involve indicating a window or bounding box into which the appearance will be scaled to fit. In some implementations this bounding box is drawn interactively by the user. In other implementation is the bounding box may be created in advance, and then it is selected by the user as the location for his or her signature appearance to be placed. In these prior art methods, the size and location of the appearance associated with the signature on the document can be indicated only approximately. For various formats of the documents are digitally signed by the enterprise, for each format of the document, the appearance of the digital signature may vary . When the user draws a bounding box or selects a previously created bounding box for the appearance, the appearance is scaled to lit within this bounding, box, and the appearance may or may not be the correct scale relative to or aligned with graphic elements in the electronic document as desired by the user.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need a system with digital signature capabilities that enables a user to quickly and easily digitally sign one or more document at a time in a secure manner. Also there is a need for an improvement of applying graphical appearance associated with a digital signature irrespective of the format or template pages in an electronic document which is less time consuming and reduce the complexity.

Summary of the Invention
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An aspect of the present invention is to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention provides a method for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document. The method comprising: authorizing a user to electronically sign one or more documents by requiring login information, allowing the user to select a plurality of documents or a folder having one or more document for effecting the signature, wherein the document having one or more format variation including the position information of the signature, initiating a single executable process to digitally sign the selected documents, wherein the digital signature is accessed only once to sign all of the selected documents, understands the variations in the signed documents and automatically locates the designated place in the document format where the signature needs to be placed, and placing the digital certificate in the designated place of the document.
In another aspect of the present invention is a system for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document. The system including a computer having a processing unit including a memory unit, and an interface operatively coupled to the processing unit and the memory unit of the computer. The memory unit that stores instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to perform operations: allowing the user to specify the plurality of documents, wherein the plurality of documents having one or more format variation including the position information of the signature, initiating a single executable process to digitally sign the selected documents, wherein the digital signature is accessed only once to sign all of the selected documents, understands the variations in the signed documents and automatically locates the designated place in the document format where the signature needs to be placed and placing the digital certificate in the designated place of the document.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

Brief description of the drawings
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the subject disclosure are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a suitable computing environment in which embodiments utilizing the techniques described herein may be implemented.
FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of a method for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 (i.e. 3A, 3B and 3C) shows various representation of Graphical User Interface (GUI), according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

Detailed description of the Invention
Various embodiment of the present invention provides system and method for signing one or more documents using digital signature. The following description provides specific details of certain embodiments of the invention illustrated in the drawings to provide a thorough understanding of those embodiments. It should be recognized, however, that the present invention can be reflected in additional embodiments and the invention may be practiced without some of the details in the following description.
The various embodiments including the example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which the various embodiments of the invention are shown. The invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the sizes of components may be exaggerated for clarity.
It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected to, or coupled to the other element or layer or intervening elements or layers that may be present. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Spatially relative terms, such as “API,” “layer,” “platform” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the structure in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.
Embodiments described herein will refer to plan views and/or cross-sectional views by way of ideal schematic views. Accordingly, the views may be modified depending on simplistic assembling or manufacturing technologies and/or tolerances. Therefore, example embodiments are not limited to those shown in the views but include modifications in configurations formed on basis of assembling process. Therefore, regions exemplified in the figures have schematic properties and shapes of regions shown in the figures exemplify specific shapes or regions of elements, and do not limit the various embodiments including the example embodiments.
The subject matter of example embodiments, as disclosed herein, is described with specificity to meet statutory requirements. However, the description itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to include different features or combinations of features similar to the ones described in this document, in conjunction with other technologies. Generally, the various embodiments including the example embodiments relate to system and method for signing one or more documents using digital signature.
In FIG. 1 are a user computer 112, a network 114, and a server computer 116. The user computer 112 may be a commercially-available computer or a special-purpose computer including a processor 118, a memory 120 which may be used to execute one or more program modules 122. Described in more detail elsewhere herein are program modules that may be executed by the user computer 112. The program modules are used in connection with digital signature and verification techniques to provide a signature for embedded code within an application document in an automated fashion for a variety of different structured document formats. The user computer 112 may operate in a networked environment and communicate with a server computer 116 including a processor 124 and a memory 126 to perform requests made by the user computer 112. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the user computer is shown in the example as communicating in a networked environment, the user computer 112 may communicate with other components utilizing different communication mediums. For example, the user computer 112 may communicate with one or more components utilizing a network connection, and/or other type of link known in the art including, but not limited to, the Internet, an intranet, or other wireless and/or hardwired connection(s).
FIG 2 shows a method for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document.
At step 210, the method authorizes or validates a user to electronically sign one or more documents by requiring login information. The login information may be or may include a user name and a password. The validation of the user may be using a desktop application or a web-portal over a remote network using a server.
At step 220, the method allows the user to select one document or a plurality of documents or a folder having one or more document for effecting the signature over the document(s). The type of the document is a word file, pdf file, xml file etc. In one embodiment, the document may have one or more format variation including the position information of the signature. The document may be an invoice document, a contract agreement, a tax document etc.
At step 230, the method initiates a single executable process to digitally sign the selected documents. The digital signature is accessed only once to sign all of the selected documents. By accessing the digital signature only once for any number of files can save substantial time and manage to generate digital signatures.
At step 240, the method understands the variations in the signed documents and automatically locates the designated place in the document format where the digital signature image or code needs to be placed. In an example embodiment, the signature location is identified by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) engine which understands and learned the variations in documents and automatically locates or may suggest to the user for placing the signature. In an embodiment, the bulk signing using Artificial intelligence (AI) system to detect the appropriate signing location will help people to use the same application for multiple files even though there are minor variation. Moreover, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) is applied on each document to identify the signing place. For e.g. in general, there is name of the authorized signatory specified in the beginning of the line or at end of the line, his/her designation is provided in the next line, or there is a generic term used as Authorized signatory. In general, there are protocols enabling identification of the signing location in the document. In an embodiment, the system is configured to detect and identify any text overlap to prevent overlap signature. In case of overlap those documents are tagged separately for manual correction.
Similarly, the documents are scanned and key parameters are identified that people would like to mark and note before they authorize the document for signing. These parameters will be arrived based on certain business rules and again AI can be applied to calibrate this further for other documents, this will help and allow user to focus on the required parameters rather than spending time in going through the complete document.
In an embodiment the present invention provides a method of digital signing of one or more documents. The method includes providing the user an option to give one document for signing or an option to select a full folder for all the documents in that folder for signature. The user has the option to save the setting on signature rule as template and pick the template whenever required. Further, the user also presents the selected documents for workflow approval. Based on the configuration the selected metadata will be extracted from the file and will be presented to an approver. The approver has option to Approve or Reject. If the approver approves the documents will be signed, else the documents will not be signed .
At step 250, the method place the digital certificate in the designated place of the document.
In another example embodiment, the method may allow the user to select one or more pre-defined template or pre-created template for signing the one or more documents. The user may also create his own template based on his/her preferences or based on their requirements. Moreover, the templates which are stored can also be editable according to their needs and store as a new template.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example Graphical User Interface (GUI).
In 300A, describes the GUI for signing of a single document which has a number of data fields. Data field 301represents browsing for a single file, data field 302 represents browsing for one or more files over a folder, data field 303 represent browsing for a template, data field 304 represents browsing for a digital signature, and data field 305 represents user information including login details etc. The GUI 300A example representation of digitally signing a single document, Once the document is selected, the GUI provides one or more information about the document name, location of the document, creation date, user name who has created. Also, the GUI 300A provides an option to select the template of the document if user wish to do so, else the GUI provides the default template for signing the document. Further, the GUI 300A also provides the information about the signature i.e. name of the signatory, signature preference, signature box size and font size, user location, and the validity whether the signature which is use is a valid or expired.
In 300B, describes the GUI for signing of one or more documents saved in a folder i.e. folder having large number of documents. Once the data field 302 is selected, a window 306 is open showing one or more documents for selection.
In 300C, describes the GUI for creating a template or editing the existing template which are stored for use. Once the data field 303 is selected, the GUI provides various option and information to the user. The option may be or may include, in an example embodiment, prefix option, suffix option, new folder, overwrite etc. Moreover, the option also includes email identity of the person. Also, the GUI provides a display of various existing templates which are pre-store and pre-created by the user. Using the option, once can create a desired template based on the requirement. Further template may also has a Timestamp containing date and time information as to when the template was created and may also on the electronic document once signed.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing executable program instructions for managing data in Internet of Things (IOT) networks which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform operations as described above. In a related aspect, embodiments described herein that are implemented as a non-transitory storage medium stores data and/or information, such as instructions, program code, data structures, program modules, an application, etc. A non- transitory storage medium includes one or more of the storage mediums described in relation to memory/storage.
In another embodiment, the computer readable storage medium includes executable program instructions in a memory to be executed for generating data patterns.
In another embodiment, the computer-readable storage medium includes storing instructions that cause the processor to automatically add storage for storing data patterns.
It will be apparent that different aspects of the description provided above may be implemented in many different forms of software, firmware, and hardware in the implementations illustrated in the figures. The actual software code or specialized control hardware used to implement these aspects is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the operation and behaviour of these aspects were described without reference to the specific software code— it being understood that software and control hardware can be designed to implement these aspects based on the description herein.
Further, certain portions of the invention may be implemented as a “component” or “system” that performs one or more functions. These components/systems may include hardware, such as a processor, an ASIC, or a FPGA, or a combination of hardware and software.
The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example.” Any embodiment or implementation described as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or implementations.
No element, act, or instruction used in the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” and “one of” is intended to include one or more items. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Each of the above identified processes corresponds to a set of instructions for performing a function described above. The above identified programs or sets of instructions need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various embodiments. For example, embodiments may be constructed in which steps are performed in an order different than illustrated, steps are combined, or steps are performed simultaneously, even though shown as sequential steps in illustrative embodiments. Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing” and variations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.
The above-described embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may be implemented using various combinations of hardware and software and communication protocol(s). Any standard communication or network protocol may be used and more than one protocol may be utilized. For the portion implemented in software, the software code may be executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed among multiple computers. Such processors may be implemented as integrated circuits, with one or more processors in an integrated circuit component, or any other suitable circuitry. Further, it should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, single board computer, micro-computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as a computer but with suitable processing capabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.
Also, the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scripting tools or a combination of programming languages, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or a virtual machine. In this respect, the invention may be embodied as a computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs (CD), optical discs, digital video disks (DVD), magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments of the invention discussed above. As is apparent from the foregoing examples, a computer readable storage medium may retain information for a sufficient time to provide computer- executable instructions in a non-transitory form.
The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that may be employed to program a computer or other processor to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present invention. Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in any suitable form. Any suitable mechanism may be used to establish a relationship between information in fields of a data structure, including the use of pointers, tags, or other mechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.
It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. The illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Various modifications and alternative applications may be devised by those skilled in the art in view of the above teachings and without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and the following claims are intended to cover such modifications, applications, and embodiments.

,CLAIMS:We claim:

1. A method for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document, the method comprising:
authorizing a user to electronically sign one or more documents by requiring login information;
allowing the user to select a plurality of documents or a folder having one or more document for effecting the signature, wherein the document having one or more format variation including the position information of the signature;
initiating a single executable process to digitally sign the selected documents, wherein the digital signature is accessed only once to sign all of the selected documents;
understands the variations in the signed documents and automatically locates the designated place in the document format where the signature needs to be placed; and
placing the digital certificate in the designated place of the document.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
allowing the user to select one or more pre-defined template for signing the one or more documents, the pre-defined template is an editable format.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signature location is identified by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) engine which understands and learned the variations in documents and automatically locates the place where the signature needs to be placed.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the document type is a word file, pdf file, xml file etc.

5. A system for digitally signing a plurality of documents and configuring the signature appearance graphic into the electronic document, comprising:
a computer having a processing unit including a memory unit, and
an interface operatively coupled to the processing unit and the memory unit of the computer, the memory unit that stores instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to perform operations:
allowing the user to specify the plurality of documents, wherein the plurality of documents having one or more format variation including the position information of the signature;
initiating a single executable process to digitally sign the selected documents, wherein the digital signature is accessed only once to sign all of the selected documents;
understands the variations in the signed documents and automatically locates the designated place in the document format where the signature needs to be placed; and
placing the digital certificate in the designated place of the document.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the interface includes a plurality of options including selection of file, selection of folder, selection of template, selection of signatory, and a information bar to display the selections to the user.