Narrative:

I was the radar controller at sector 10/11. Stc departure aircraft X departed stc southeast bound and I initially issued a climb to 16;000. My d-side was training at the time with his trainer. He was working on all the point outs to M98 as aircraft X was climbing out. I then issued the climb clearance to the aircraft's requested altitude of FL410. Since my d-side was busy making verbal point outs to M98 I pvd'd (plan view display) the aircraft to sector 8/9. When I came back around to this aircraft the automated point out was indicating that it had been approved from sector 8/9. That is when the d-side trainer mentioned to the trainee that it looks like aircraft X is going to clip sector 8. I spoke up and said that 8 and 9 are combined and that 9 is already watching. They pvd'd the aircraft to sector 8 to confirm they were indeed combined. Since they were combined; my d-side accepted the point out so as to not have to have sector 8/9 approved the same point out. It was at that time that sector 8/9 called to question why we were approving our own point outs to them.from my side of it; all I was able to tell is that sector 8/9 had approved the point out and I moved on to other tasks. After the data of all entries had been pulled up; it turned out that the 10/11 d-side had 'approved' the automated point out inadvertently and did not realize that he had done so. At this point; aircraft X was climbing through the sector 8/9 airspace without approval from sector 8/9.my recommendation is that the color of the 'a' in the data block turns a different color when the sector that needs to approve the point out actually does approve the point out.as of now; either the initiating or receiving sector can 'approve' the point out. There was no way of knowing that this pvd was 'approved' by the initiating sector and not the receiving. The 'a' in the data block looks the same whether the initiating sector or the receiving sector approves the pvd. Other option would be to only allow the receiving sector the ability to 'approve' the automated point out.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Center Controller reported airspace violations due to another sector approving point outs in which they should not have approved.

Narrative: I was the radar controller at sector 10/11. STC Departure Aircraft X departed STC southeast bound and I initially issued a climb to 16;000. My D-side was training at the time with his trainer. He was working on all the point outs to M98 as Aircraft X was climbing out. I then issued the climb clearance to the aircraft's requested altitude of FL410. Since my D-side was busy making verbal point outs to M98 I PVD'd (Plan View Display) the aircraft to sector 8/9. When I came back around to this aircraft the automated point out was indicating that it had been approved from sector 8/9. That is when the D-side trainer mentioned to the trainee that it looks like Aircraft X is going to clip sector 8. I spoke up and said that 8 and 9 are combined and that 9 is already watching. They PVD'd the aircraft to sector 8 to confirm they were indeed combined. Since they were combined; my D-side accepted the point out so as to not have to have sector 8/9 approved the same point out. It was at that time that sector 8/9 called to question why we were approving our own point outs to them.From my side of it; all I was able to tell is that sector 8/9 had approved the point out and I moved on to other tasks. After the data of all entries had been pulled up; it turned out that the 10/11 D-side had 'approved' the automated point out inadvertently and did not realize that he had done so. At this point; Aircraft X was climbing through the Sector 8/9 airspace without approval from Sector 8/9.My recommendation is that the color of the 'A' in the data block turns a different color when the sector that needs to approve the point out actually does approve the point out.As of now; either the initiating or receiving sector can 'approve' the point out. There was no way of knowing that this PVD was 'approved' by the initiating sector and not the receiving. The 'A' in the data block looks the same whether the initiating sector or the receiving sector approves the PVD. Other option would be to only allow the receiving sector the ability to 'approve' the automated point out.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.