ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,771,538, issued on Oct. 20, was assigned to Confidencial Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.).

"Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for selectively or fully protecting electronic and digitally signed electronic documents and specifying access thereof" was invented by Karim Eldefrawy (Menlo Park, Calif.), Benjamin Terner (New York), Michael James Mullen (Antigonish, Canada), Mason Lee (Los Angeles) and Dana Charles Wheeler (Santa Monica, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for selectively or fully protecting electronically or digitally signed electronic documents and specifying access thereof...