Patent ID: 7000105

Claim:
A method for providing one or more services via a network comprising: receiving at a trusted messaging entity a digitally-signed document; identifying a subscribing customer that digitally signed the document; identifying an issuing participant associated with the subscribing customer; identifying a relying customer that is intending to rely on the digitally-signed document; identifying a relying participant associated with the relying customer; transmitting a first validation request for a digital certificate of the issuing participant to a root entity, the first validation request being signed with a private key associated with a first digital certificate that names the relying customer; receiving a validation response for the first validation request from the root entity; transmitting a second validation request for a digital certificate of the subscribing customer to the issuing participant, the second validation request being signed with a private key associated with the first digital certificate that names the relying customer; receiving a validation response for the second validation request from the issuing participant; transmitting a third validation request for a digital certificate of the relying participant to the root entity, the third validation request being signed with a private key associated with a first digital certificate that names the subscribing customer; receiving a validation response for the third validation request from the root entity; transmitting a fourth validation request for a digital certificate of the relying customer to the relying participant, the fourth validation request being signed with a private key associated with the first digital certificate that names the subscribing customer; receiving a validation response for the fourth validation request from the relying participant; determining whether the first, second, third, and fourth validation responses are positive; if the first, second, third, and fourth validation responses are positive, creating a first digitally-signed message that indicates the validity of the subscribing-customer digital certificate, the first digitally-signed message being created using a private key associated with a second digital certificate that names the relying participant; transmitting the digitally-signed document and the digitally-signed message to the relying customer.