Patent ID: 8284418

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system, for storing an electronic form of a physical hard copy document, comprising: converting the physical hard copy document to an electronic form of the document; generating a first digital fingerprint of the electronic form of the document; retrieving one or more second digital fingerprints for previously stored electronic forms of documents; comparing the first digital fingerprint to the one or more second digital fingerprints; and controlling storage of the electronic form of the document based on results of comparing the first digital fingerprint to the one or more second digital fingerprints, wherein controlling storage of the electronic form of the document based on results of comparing the first digital fingerprint to the one or more second digital fingerprints comprises: determining a degree of matching between the first digital fingerprint and each of the one or more second digital fingerprint; identifying at least one of the one or more second digital fingerprints having a degree of matching that is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the at least one second digital fingerprint being associated with a previously stored electronic document; presenting an option to a user identifying the electronic form of the document and the previously stored electronic document of the document and requesting an input from the user to control storage of the electronic form of the document; receiving a user input in response to presenting the option; and controlling storage of the electronic form of the document based on user input in response to presenting the option.