US Patent 7437310 Third party contract depository for E-commerce transactions

A method, system and program for ensuring the authenticity of electronic documents generated during E-commerce transactions. The method, means and program function include: (1) creating an electronic depository for storing electronic documents generated during an E-commerce transaction, (2) enabling an automatic receipt at the electronic depository of an electronic document created during an E-commerce transaction; (3) storing the electronic document in the electronic depository; (4) providing each party to the transaction with a document ID for later access to the electronic document; and (5) allowing later read-only access to the electronic document and preventing any modifications to the document once it has been stored.