Appeal No. 1998-2466 Page 2
Application No. 08/508,747
Appellant's invention relates to a system and method for
time-stamping and signing a digital message. An understanding
of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary
claim 1, which is reproduced as follows:
1. A machine-implemented method for time-stamping and
signing a digital message to establish the date and time when
said message was received by a first machine, comprising the
machine implemented steps of:
providing for the inputting of said message into said
first machine;
providing for the coordination of the time of said first
machine with Universal Coordinated Time (UTC);
providing for the addition of a time-stamp to said
message, said time stamp being the Universal Coordinated Time
(UTC) at which said first machine receives said message;
providing a procedure for checking the time accuracy of
said first machine to verify the time accuracy of the time-
stamp;
providing for the computation of a hash code for the
time-stamped message with a specific hashing procedure;
providing for the computation of a digital signature for
the hashed time-stamped message utilizing a private key; and
providing for outputting the signed hashed time-stamped
message.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Haber et al. (Haber) 5,136,647 Aug. 4,
1992
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007