Electronic Consent Collection via Trusted Third-Party Identity Verification

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Solution Overview

Problem

The existing methods for sending electronic registered mail lack a secure and efficient way to collect consent from recipients, particularly for non-professional addressees, which can lead to disputes and challenges in proving consent, especially when electronic consent is not clearly identified.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that utilize a trusted third party to remotely collect electronic consent from recipients through a multimedia message, including identity verification, and record probative data for consent, allowing secure and durable storage and validation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a simple email is used to obtain consent, then the process is simple and fast, but the sender cannot be definitively identified and the consent lacks legal proof

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of obtaining consentVSAvoidproof of consent
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a trusted third-party service as an intermediary to manage consent collection. This service sends verification emails, validates recipient responses, and provides cryptographic proof of consent to senders. The intermediary resolves the contradiction by adding reliability through identity verification while maintaining ease of operation through automated processes.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary identity verification and consent validation before the actual registered mail delivery. The trusted third party pre-establishes the consent status and provides proof tokens in advance, ensuring that when delivery occurs, the sender already has verified proof of consent without needing to perform additional verification steps.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If electronic registered mail is sent without prior consent collection, then the process is faster and cheaper, but the notification may be annulled in case of dispute

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvespeed of deliveryVSAvoidlegal validity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs consent collection and verification as a preliminary action before mail delivery. The trusted third party establishes consent status in advance and provides proof tokens that can be immediately used during delivery, ensuring both speed (no verification needed at delivery moment) and legal validity (consent was pre-verified).

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The trusted third party creates a cryptographic copy or token representing the consent that can be transferred and validated. This copy serves as sufficient proof of consent during the delivery process, eliminating the need for the recipient to be present or for real-time verification, thus maintaining speed while ensuring validity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

3Reliability

If identity verification procedure is implemented, then the consent is more reliable and legally valid, but the process becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevalidity of consentVSAvoidcomplexity of consent collection
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The trusted third party acts as an intermediary that absorbs the complexity of identity verification. Senders and recipients interact with simple interfaces (sending an email, replying to verify), while the intermediary handles the complex verification logic, cryptographic operations, and proof generation in the background, thus maintaining reliability while reducing perceived complexity for users.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The identity verification process is designed as self-service where the recipient automatically verifies their own identity by replying to the verification email from the trusted third party. The system automatically processes the response, generates proof tokens, and updates consent status without requiring manual intervention from senders or complex user actions from recipients.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP3370390B1Method for collecting electronic consent for sending electronic registered mail
Publication Date: 2021.06.02 AR24
  • EP3370390B1 patent drawingFigure 1A~1B
  • EP3370390B1 patent drawingFigure 1C~3
  • EP3370390B1 patent drawingFigure 2A

AI summary

A method for obtaining electronic consent for electronic notification of registered mail, the method being implemented by at least one computer and comprising the following steps: receiving (200) an electronic request for obtaining consent from a recipient user to receive electronic registered mail from the sending user, the request including a contact email address of the recipient user; sending (211) to the contact email address a multimedia message querying the recipient user, the multimedia message including an identification of the sending user and response collection data to reply to the multimedia message; triggering (221, 241) a procedure for verifying the identity of the recipient user and receiving a result of the identity verification procedure;and the provision (223) to the sending user, in the event of receipt of a positive response to the multimedia message by which the recipient user signifies their consent and in the event of a positive result of the identity verification procedure, of evidentiary data representative of the consent.