Patent ID: 7596689

Claim:
A method for facilitating a secure delivery of a document over a network from a sender to a next stage on a routing list, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an indication that a sender desires to deliver a document to a next stage on a routing list for the document; identifying a recipient from the next stage of the routing list; sending an inquiry to a public key database to determine whether the recipient has a public key listed in the public key database; receiving a response to said inquiry, said response selected from the group of said recipient having a public key in said database and said recipient not having a public key in said database; if said response is said recipient having a public key in said public key database, completing the steps of: (a) retrieving said public key from said public key database; (b) setting a message encryption key for encrypting the document equal to said public key; (c) encrypting the document prior to sending said document using the message encryption key; and (d) sending the encrypted document to the recipient; if said response is said recipient not having a public key in said public key database, completing the steps of: (a) providing an escrow encryption key not equal to the recipient's public key and not equal to the sender's private key, wherein an escrow unencryption key for unlocking said escrow encryption key is not made available to said recipient or to the sender and (b) encrypting the document using the generated escrow encryption key, and storing the escrow key encrypted document in escrow; (c) notifying the recipient of the document stored in escrow; and (d) only in response to receiving an acknowledgement from the recipient, unencrypting the escrow encryption key encrypted document using the escrow unencryption key and re-encrypting the document using a document encryption key prior to sending said document to the recipient, wherein neither the escrow encryption key or the escrow unencryption key is provided to the recipient.