Patent ID: 7865042

Claim:
A method for managing documents implemented on a computer, comprising: (a) obtaining an electronic copy of a document and metadata about the document, the metadata including an access history of the document; (b) rendering barcode data representing the metadata including the access history of the document; and (c) applying the barcode data to the document, where the barcode data including the access history of the document at the time the barcode data is applied to the document, by carrying out at least one of (c1) through (c4): (c1) printing the document and the barcode data on a recording medium; (c2) displaying the document and the barcode data on a display device; (c3) storing the document and the barcode data in association with the document in a mass storage device; and (c4) transmitting the document and the barcode data in association with the document to an external device.