Patent ID: 6895550

Claim:
A method of Portable Document Format (PDF) document management, comprising: receiving a plurality of files from one or more external applications; determining whether each received file is a PDF file; extracting key information from each received PDF file concerning a corresponding PDF document contained in the PDF file; comparing the extracted key information for each received PDF document with analogous reference information stored for a plurality of previously received PDF documents; determining a verification status for each received PDF document according to the comparison and providing the verification status to the external application from which the PDF file was received, the verification status indicating that the received PDF document is a duplicate document if all the extracted key information for the received PDF document matches analogous reference information for a previously received PDF document, the verification status indicating that the received PDF document is an updated document if certain but not all the key extracted information for the received PDF document matches analogous reference information for a previously received PDF document, the verification status indicating that the received PDF document is a new document if at least certain extracted key information for the received PDF document does not match analogous reference information for a previously received PDF document; if the received PDF document is a duplicate document, returning processing of the received PDF file to the external application from which it was received, without storing any extracted key information for the received PDF document as reference information; if the received PDF document is an updated document, storing certain extracted key information for the received PDF document to update the reference information, and returning processing of the received PDF file to the external application from which it was received; and if the received PDF document is a new document, storing all extracted key information for the received PDF document as reference information, and returning processing of the received PDF file to the external application from which it was received.