Using a Custom Printer Driver to Automatically Electronically Create, Capture and Manage all Documents Utilized in a Transaction

Abstract

A plurality of electronic documents utilized in a transaction are automatically managed. For each separate document of the plurality, a custom printer driver receives instructions to a printer for printing the document. Instead of printing the document, the custom printer driver creates a file in a standard format such as PDF containing the document, based on the received print instructions. Content concerning the transaction is automatically added to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the document in the standard format. At least one electronic signature for the document is received, and automatically added to at least one corresponding location of the document in the standard format. The file containing the document in the standard format is saved with the added content concerning the transaction and the at least one electronic signature, and the saved file is associated with the transaction.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer implemented method for automatically managing a plurality of electronic documents utilized in a transaction, the method comprising:
 for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents:
 receiving, by a custom printer driver, instructions to a printer for printing the specific document; 
 instead of printing the specific document, creating, by the custom printer driver, a file in a standard format containing the specific document, based on the received instructions to the printer for printing the specific document; 
 automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format; 
 receiving at least one electronic signature for the specific document; 
 automatically adding the at least one electronic signature to at least one corresponding location of the specific document in the standard format; 
 saving the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the added content concerning the transaction and the at least one electronic signature; and 
 associating the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of electronic documents utilized in the transaction further comprises:
 different documents originating from multiple separate sources. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of electronic documents utilized in the transaction further comprises:
 different documents in multiple separate formats. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein received instructions to the printer for printing a given specific document of the plurality of electronic documents utilized in the transaction further comprise:
 instructions for printing specific fields of the specific document at pre-determined locations on a pre-formatted paper form. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 instead of printing the specific document, adding, by the custom printer driver, the specific fields of the specific document to a file in the standard format containing an electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form, at the pre-determined locations. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 creating an electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form one time; and 
 using the created electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form multiple times. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising:
 adding metadata to the electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form, the metadata identifying specific content associated with specific pre-determined locations. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising:
 editing the electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form. 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein editing the electronic representation of the pre-formatted paper form further comprises:
 editing an electronic representation of a pre-determined location while preserving metadata identifying associated specific content. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the pre-formatted paper form from comprises:
 an impact printer form. 
 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the standard format comprises:
 a Portable Document Format (“PDF”) file. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 adding metadata to the files in the standard format associated with the transaction, the metadata identifying types of content associated with specific fields. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  further comprising:
 saving specific fields of specific ones of the files in the standard format associated with the transaction as a single record on a publicly accessible transaction log. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the publicly accessible transaction log is a blockchain. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the blockchain is Bitcoin. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the blockchain is Ethereum. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content concerning a customer participating in the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content concerning a merchant participating in the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content concerning an item being purchased or leased in the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content being provided by a governing agency to the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content concerning the transaction retrieved from a database, to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format further comprises:
 automatically adding content concerning the transaction provided by a human user operating a computing device, to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1  wherein associating the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction further comprises:
 adding content identifying the transaction to the file containing the specific document in the standard format. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1  wherein associating the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction further comprises:
 storing contents of the file containing the specific document in the standard format as a record in a database associated with the transaction. 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 1  wherein associating the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction further comprises:
 storing the file containing the specific document in the standard format at a location in a file system associated with the transaction. 
 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the transaction further comprises:
 a purchase or lease of a vehicle. 
 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  wherein the purchase or lease of the vehicle comprises:
 a purchase or lease of an automobile, from an auto dealership, by an individual customer. 
 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27  wherein the plurality of electronic documents utilized in the transaction further comprise at least:
 a sales or lease contract provided by the dealer, at least one licensing document provided by a government agency of the state in which the transaction is occurring, and at least one additional document provided by at least one additional party. 
 
     
     
         29 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for automatically managing a plurality of electronic documents utilized in a transaction, the at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that, when loaded into computer memory and executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform the following steps:
 for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents:
 receiving, by a custom printer driver, instructions to a printer for printing the specific document; 
 instead of printing the specific document, creating, by the custom printer driver, a file in a standard format containing the specific document, based on the received instructions to the printer for printing the specific document; 
 automatically adding content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format; 
 receiving at least one electronic signature for the specific document; 
 automatically adding at least one electronic signature to at least one corresponding location of the specific document in the standard format; 
 saving the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the added content concerning the transaction and at least one electronic signature; and 
 associating the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction. 
   
     
     
         30 . A computer system for automatically managing a plurality of electronic documents utilized in a transaction, the computing device comprising:
 at least one processor;   system memory;   a custom printer driver residing in the system memory, the custom printer driver being configured to, for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents, receive instructions for printing the specific document, and instead of printing the specific document, to create a file in a standard format containing the specific document, based on the received instructions to the printer for printing the specific document;   a content adding module residing in the system memory, the content adding module being configured to, for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents, automatically add content concerning the transaction to at least one corresponding field of the file containing the specific document in the standard format;   an electronic-signature processing module residing in the system memory, the electronic-signature processing module being configured to, for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents, receive at least one electronic-signature for the specific document, and to automatically add the at least one electronic-signature to at least one corresponding location of the specific document in the standard format;   a document saving module residing in the system memory, the document saving module being configured to, for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents, save the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the added content concerning the transaction and the at least one electronic signature; and   an association module residing in the system memory, the association module being configured to, for separate ones of the documents of the plurality of documents, associate the file containing the specific document in the standard format with the transaction.