Document management system and method

Abstract

A system for managing documents at an electronic data repository includes an electronic data repository that is accessed by a plurality of parties that are remote from a repository and from each other and that have a roll in a transaction. A computer program receives a document from a first remote party and stores the received document in the repository. The computer program permits one or more of the parties access to the document and prohibits all of the parties from modifying and deleting the document from the repository while any second remote party has access to the document.

Description

[0001]The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 633,348, filed Dec. 4, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 160,478, filed May 31, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,367), which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 381,007, filed on May 14, 2002, the entire disclosure of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any-one of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright whatsoever.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for electronically managing information.[0004]It is common in business transactions involving multiple parties for the parties t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for managing data items, for example documents involved in a transaction.

Problems solved by technology

Accordingly, it may be difficult at any given time to identify the currently valid document or for any two remote parties to be sure that their respective copies of a given document are the same.

Generally, however, these systems are internal to a given party and do not provide document access to other parties.

The external parties cannot add documentation, and they cannot be sure of the consistency of the documents they review on the extranet over time.

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