Patent ID: 8688733

Claim:
A method for managing access to documentation provided by a client to a company, the method comprising: assigning a protection key for a documentation file via a documentation inventory manager prior to providing the documentation file to the company; storing the protection key within a header record; associating the protection key stored within the header record with the documentation file to provide an imbedded header record; providing the documentation file and the imbedded header record to the company; and, managing access to the documentation file via the imbedded header record, the managing access executing on a computer system, the managing access comprising determining whether to grant permission to a particular user within the company to access the documentation file; and wherein the imbedded header record includes information regarding an original file name sent by the client, a key value that is assigned to that version of the documentation file, permissions indicating whether the documentation file can be copied, and the documentation inventory manager location; and, each time a version of the file is downloaded to a different location within the company, that file name, location, and a new unique key is updated in the documentation inventory manager; the documentation file and the header file is provided by the client to the company via a common FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server; the client can view the imbedded header file via the documentation inventory manager, update which files can be accessed by the company, and mark certain files for deletion; and, the client can restrict access of the documentation file to a particular group within the company via the imbedded header file.