Patent Application
20140372766
The invention disclosed herein relates generally to notarial services, and more particularly to a device that can provide proof of execution and acknowledgements of instruments.
A notary is a public official who has the power to administer oaths, take acknowledgements, and perform other duties as permitted by law. Of those duties, an acknowledgement is probably the most common act performed by a notary. An acknowledgement is a formal declaration before an authorized official by a person executing an instrument that such execution is his/her free act and deed. One such instrument that is generally acknowledged is a conveyance of land, but virtually any document that is signed can be acknowledged. A typical acknowledgement form states that the signer of the instrument personally appeared before the notary and acknowledged having signed the instrument for its stated purpose. Thus, for an acknowledgement to be properly taken, the signer of an instrument must personally appear before the notary, acknowledge that he/she signed the instrument in question, and state that it is his/her free act and deed. Acknowledgements for individuals require the notary to either personally know the signer or have the identity of the signer satisfactorily proven on the basis of documents, i.e., acceptable forms of identification. In some jurisdictions, to prove identity the signer must provide the notary with at least two forms of identification containing the signer's signature, at least one of which must also contain the photograph of the signer or a physical description. Upon successful proof of identity and taking of the acknowledgement, including execution of the instrument, the notary will then also sign the instrument and place an embossed seal or stamp indicating the notary's name on the instrument. A completed acknowledgement form clearly indicates what notarial act has been performed, and provides information concerning the execution of the document to anyone who views the document at a later date.
The process for “notarizing” a document as described above is cumbersome and prone to both error and fraud. Verification of a notarized document requires authenticating both the notary's signature and stamp/seal. In many situations, verification occurs many years after the document was notarized. Notary stamps can be easily forged, and signatures often change over time, making such verification difficult at best. Since the verification is a manual (forensic) process, it is prone to errors and can, with relatively minimal effort, be defrauded. In addition, notaries do not keep records of the documents they notarize, and changes to the document can be made by determined attackers. In some countries, notaries are also asked to certify that a copy of a document is identical to an original document. This often involves a visual comparison of the two documents by the notary, which is both time consuming and prone to error.
The present invention alleviates the shortcomings of existing notarization practices by providing an automated notarization process. Such automation provides signed data records that can easily be verified and authenticated, removing human judgment from the process. Additionally, any changes to a notarized document can easily be detected.
According to the present invention, a device for performing automated notarization includes a scanner, printer, hardware security module and camera. The hardware security module includes a secure processor and secure storage for data records and cryptographic keys, along with a secure real time clock. A person desiring to have a document notarized can use the scanner to scan the document, presents identification to the device, and has his/her picture and or video taken. Each of these items is stored in a data record, which is then displayed to the person for approval. Upon approval, the data record is provided to the hardware security module, which adds a timestamp to the data record and then digitally signs the data record. The resulting signed data record may be stored in electronic form or printed on a physical document in the form of images and barcodes. The resulting signed data record ties together the original document, and identification of the person, a biometric of the person, e.g., a picture, and a timestamp. Changes to any of these data elements can be detected by verifying the digital signature.
The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like of corresponding parts.
In describing the present invention, reference is made to the drawings, wherein there is seen in
In step 105, the presenter then presents identification to the system. This can be accomplished by placing a recognized form of an identification document (e.g., a driver's license, passport, etc.) on the scanning device 18. The device 10 scans the identification and adds the scanned identification to the data record. Alternatively, a different form of identification can be utilized, such as, for example, a biometric characteristic of the presenter. For example, a fingerprint reader or other biometric device provided in the device 10 (not shown in
Referring now to
To authenticate or verify a document that has been notarized by the device 10, the signed data record must first be reconstructed. If the signed data record is electronic it may simply be read from the electronic media. If it is printed the printed document will need to be scanned and the data record reconstructed (e.g., by reading one or more 2D barcodes and assembling them into the signed data record). Once the signed data record is reconstructed the digital signature can be verified using standard digital signature verification techniques. If the signature verifies the various elements of the data record (document, picture, identification card, etc.) are presented to the person wishing to verify the notarization. The person verifying the notarization can then compare the original document with the one in the data record to ensure that the original document was not modified after notarization. Alternatively the person verifying can simply use the document obtained from the data record. The person verifying must also establish the identity of the original presenter. This can be accomplished by comparing the picture in the data record with the identification card in the data record. Alternatively the picture and the identification card (e.g., a picture on the identification card) may be compared using software. If a facial recognition is present in the data record the person verifying may rely upon that indication.
In some embodiments the device 10 can be equipped with a payment device, such as, for example, a credit/debit card reader or cash acceptor to allow the device 10 to accept payment for performing the notarization service. Alternatively, the security module 22 can store prepayment for notarizations in internal registers and debit those registers each time a document is notarized. This might be useful for providing a notarization service to a business, where the business could prepay for a certain number of notarizations. In other embodiments, the security module 22 could restrict the dates and times when notarization can occur. For example, if the device 10 is a kiosk is in a public place the module 22 could refuse to sign/notarize documents during hours when few people are present. This could prevent someone from being coerced to present a document by another person with a gun out of view of the camera in the middle of the night.
While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated above, it should be understood that these are exemplary of the invention and are not to be considered as limiting. Additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
