Patent ID: 7111230

Claim:
A method for managing the annotation of a document comprising: obtaining an original document; making an original electronic version of the document available to an annotation manager system; associating the original electronic version of the document with digital paper; receiving a plurality of annotations from a plurality of team members each using a hardcopy of the original electronic version of the document that was printed on the associated digital paper; receiving annotation author identification data for identifying associating each of the plurality of annotations with the team member who created the annotation; obtaining hierarchal permission data for each team member; determining for each annotation if such annotation is an authorized annotation using the hierarchal permission data; associating each authorized annotation with a location in the original electronic version of the document; creating a new annotated version of the original electronic version of the document incorporating the authorized annotations; parsing the annotations for at least one editing command; determining an authorization level for the at least one editing command; and if the authorization level for the at least one editing command is below an authorization threshold, converting the at least one editing command into an annotation.