Patent ID: 7213150

Claim:
A method for enabling a network of database systems to provably track a message, wherein the message is created at an origin system and is destined to a recipient system, wherein the message passes through a first database system and a second database system, and wherein the origin system, the recipient system, the first database system, and the second database system are different from one another, comprising: determining a first digest of the message at the first database system; sending the first digest from the first database system to the second database system; signing the first digest at the second database system using a second private encryption key that is associated with the second database system; sending the signed first digest from the second database system to the first database system; validating the signed first digest at the first database system using a second public encryption key that is associated with the second private encryption key; and if the signed first digest is valid, persistently storing the signed first digest at the first database system, thereby enabling the first database system to prove that the second database system requested to receive the message.