Patent Document ID: 8082277
Application ID: 12004685

Base Claim:
1. A document generation system, comprising: a plurality of client computer systems; and a server computer system having memory for storing data defining a document, the document having a plurality of sections, the server computer system configured to communicate with the client computer systems via a network, the server computer system configured to define a plurality of permission levels, including at least a first permission level, a second permission level, and a third permission level, and to assign each of a plurality of users to a respective one of the permission levels, wherein users assigned to the first permission level are authorized by the server computer system to at least modify the document, wherein users assigned to the second permission level are authorized by the server computer system to at least review the document and make comments for reading by at least one user assigned to the first permission level, and wherein users assigned to the third permission level are authorized by the server computer system to at least review the document and approve the document on a section-by-section basis, the server computer system configured to permit a first user assigned to the first permission level to edit a first section of the document and to provide a first input for indicating that the first user deems the first section to be ready for review by at least one user assigned to the second permission level, the server computer system further configured to automatically send a notice to a second user assigned to the second permission level in response to the first input, the server computer system configured to permit the second user to review the first section, provide a comment related to the first section, and provide a second input for indicating that the second user approves the first section for review by at least one user assigned to the third permission level, the server computer system configured to provide the comment from the second user to the first user and to automatically send a notice to a third user assigned to the third permission level in response to the second user input, the server computer system configured to permit the third user to review the first section and provide a third input for indicating that the third user approves the first section, the server computer system configured to associate each section of the document with a respective status indicator indicating whether the respective section has been approved by at least one user assigned to the second permission level, the server computer system configured to update the status indicator assigned to the first section in response to the second input to indicate that the first section has been approved by at least one user assigned to the second permission level.

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Claim 6:
6. The document generation system of claim 1 , wherein the server computer system is configured to disable modifications of the first section by the first user in response to the first input.