Systems and methods for managing document pedigrees

A system for managing the pedigrees of electronic documents, comprising:

• a non-transitory memory having a plurality of electronic documents stored therein, wherein each electronic document in the plurality of electronic documents is associated with an envelope stored in the memory, and wherein each envelope comprises a pedigree identifier (PID), and wherein each PID comprises a document identifier (DID), a last access identifier (LID) and a current access identifier (CID);
• a non-transitory storage area having a plurality of pedigree entries stored therein, wherein one or more pedigree entries are associated with one of the plurality of electronic documents and each pedigree entry comprises context information about an access to the associated electronic document, and wherein each pedigree entry also comprises an associated pedigree identifier (PID) that identifies the associated electronic document with a DID, identifies the access to the associated electronic document with a CID, and identifies an immediately prior access with an LID;
• a pedigree manager;
• and
• a client device operable by a user to:
• access a first electronic document from the plurality of electronic documents, wherein the associated envelope for the first electronic document comprises a first pedigree identifier (first PID) comprising a first DID, a first CID and a first LID;
• parse the associated envelope for the first electronic document to obtain the first PID;
• send a first pedigree request to the pedigree manager when the first electronic document is accessed, wherein the first pedigree request comprises the first PID and context information including a first action type indicating how the first electronic document was accessed;
• receive, from the pedigree manager, a second pedigree identifier (second PID) for the first electronic document, the second PID comprising the first DID, the first CID as a second LID, and a second CID;
• and
• save the second PID in the associated envelope for the first electronic document;
• wherein the pedigree manager is configured to, on one or more computing devices:
• receive the first pedigree request from the client;
• use the first PID to generate the second PID;
• create a new pedigree entry for the first electronic document, wherein the new pedigree entry comprises the second PID and the context information including the first action type;
• send the second PID to the client;
• and
• save the new pedigree entry to the storage area.