Patent ID: 8041952

Claim:
A method for printing a document that contains an electronic signature, comprising: detecting the presence of the electronic signature in the document, the electronic signature including a user identifier and a public key; extracting the user identifier from the electronic signature associated with the document, the user identifier identifying a person who has signed the document; extracting the public key from the electronic signature; verifying whether or not the public key extracted from the electronic signature is a public key that has been created by the person who signed the document including: accessing a signature database that stores a plurality of user identifiers and a plurality of public keys, each public key being associated with a user identifier; and determining that the electronic signature is valid by verifying that the user identifier and the public key extracted from the electronic signature are associated with each other in the signalize database, and; printing the document if the verification determines that the public key associated with the electronic signature is a public key created by the person who signed the document and nor printing the document if the verification fails.