This patent
looks to me to be nothing more than a document input, storage, and
workflow management system. They seem to be simply implementing a Queue of
documents/files and managing them without having to name each document or choose
a directory to file it under. Aka a database storage/indexing system.
That
said, I used to work for a company (Micronet Software Corp., Laurel MD) that
developed a distributed document processing system that did this, back in the
1992-93 era. Documents were entered into the system, automatically scanned by
the software, indexed based on the contents of the document, and the workflow
management would queue those documents through to the appropriate personnel
needed to process those documents. Each installation was allowed to create
custom database fields to manage the documents based on their own needs. And
yes, it stamped each document with a time stamp, just like this patent keeps
harping on. Document management is not exactly rocket science (what I do today,
so I know something about that) and why this software system deserved a patent I
have no clue.
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