“Blockchain Insurance Verification System” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20220207615): Patent Application

2022 JUL 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventor Naqvi, Hyder (Irving, TX, US), filed on December 24, 2020, was made available online on June 30, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance is a practice or arrangement by which an entity (i.e., the insurer) provides a guarantee of compensation to another (i.e., the insured) for a specified loss, damage, illness, death, or other risk in return for payment of a premium. Types of insurance include personal automobile insurance, commercial automobile insurance, liability insurance, commercial liability insurance, professional liability insurance, property insurance, health insurance, flood insurance, life insurance, mortgage insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, agricultural insurance, and so on. Insurance policies may specify the risk that is covered, the limits of the coverage, conditions of the coverage, endorsements and/or exclusions to the coverage, and so on.

“People or other entities may depend on insurance obtained by other people or entities. For example, a company may hire a contractor or vendor to do work on a property and may depend on that contractor or vendor to be insured against the risk that damage occurs to the property, to other property, to the contractor or vendor and/or the contractor’s or vendor’s employees and/or other people, and so on. This dependency may enable the company to transfer the risk to cover their liabilities from the contractor’s or vendor’s negligence while performing their activities. As such, the company may verify the insurance policy and/or policies of the contractor or vendor to determine that the appropriate coverage and/or coverages are in place.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The present disclosure relates to a blockchain insurance verification system. The system may obtain information for one or more policies and/or updates to such policies related to one or more insureds and/or store such information in one or more blockchains. The information may detail the risk that is covered, the limits of the coverage, conditions of the coverage, endorsements and/or exclusions to the coverage, and so on. The information may also include an indication of an authentication strength level, which may correspond to the entity (such as the insured, the requester, an insurance agent, the insurer, and so on) who provided the information and/or verified the accuracy of the information. The system may be usable to store such information in an unalterable but updatable way, provide such information (which may be admissible in court and/or other proceedings due to the unalterable nature of previously stored information), connect one or more parties looking to provide and/or obtain such information, verify such information (which may be performed in real time), determine an authentication strength level of such information, determine one or more sets of requirements, compare such information to one or more sets of requirements, provide notifications (such as regarding coverage, lack of coverage, coverage to obtain, changes in coverage, coverage endorsements and/or exclusions, changes to information that an entity has verified, and so on), submit one or more claims related to the information, obtain payment and/or subrogation related to one or more submitted claims, provide the information, provide results of a comparison of the information to one or more sets of requirements, communicate with one or more systems to perform these functions, and so on.

“In various embodiments, an insurance verification system includes at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions and at least one processor. The at least one processor executes the instructions to store information for at least one insurance policy in at least one block of a blockchain, determine an authentication strength level of the information according to an entity who provided the information or endorsed the information as accurate, and store an indication of the authentication strength level in association with the at least one block.

“In some examples, the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a lowest authentication strength level when the entity is other than a licensed insurance agent or an insurer. In a number of examples, the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a higher authentication strength level when the entity is a licensed insurance agent unassociated with the at least one insurance policy than when the entity is other than the licensed insurance agent or an insurer. In various examples, the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a higher authentication strength level when the entity is a licensed insurance agent associated with the at least one insurance policy than when the entity is other than the licensed insurance agent associated with the at least one insurance policy or an insurer. In some examples, the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a highest authentication strength level when the entity is an insurer.

“In a number of examples, the at least one processor receives a claim associated with the at least one insurance policy and processes the claim. In various implementations of such examples, the at least one processor compares the authentication strength level to a threshold; when the authentication strength level is above the threshold, pays the claim prior to submitting the claim to an insurer associated with the at least one insurance policy for payment; and otherwise, obtains payment for the claim from the insurer prior to paying the claim.

“In some embodiments, an insurance verification system includes at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions and at least one processor. The at least one processor executes the instructions to determine a set of requirements associated with a requester, generate a comparison of the set of requirements to information for at least one insurance policy associated with an insured that is stored in at least one block of a blockchain, and provide results of the comparison.

“In various examples, the results indicate that the at least one insurance policy satisfies the set of requirements. In a number of examples, the results indicate coverage required by the set of requirements that is missing from the at least one insurance policy. In some implementations of such examples, the results are provided as a prompt to obtain the coverage.

“In a number of examples, the results indicate that an authentication strength level of the information required by the set of requirements is satisfied. In various examples, the results prompt an entity to endorse the information as accurate in order for an authentication strength level of the information required by the set of requirements to be satisfied. In some examples, the at least one processor determines that a change affects the results, generates an updated comparison of the set of requirements to the information, and provides results of the updated comparison.

“In a number of embodiments, an insurance verification system includes at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions and at least one processor. The at least one processor executes the instructions to store information for at least one insurance policy associated with an insured in at least one block of a blockchain wherein the information is associated with an authentication strength level, associate the information with a set of requirements for a requester, determine a change to the information or the set of requirements, and provide a notification of the change.

“In some examples, the notification indicates that the information no longer satisfies the set of requirements. In various examples, the notification alerts an entity who endorsed the information as accurate that the information has changed. In a number of examples, the notification prompts the insured to obtain additional insurance coverage.

“In various examples, the change corresponds to a reduction in coverage associated with the at least one insurance policy. In some examples, the change corresponds to a changed beneficiary associated with the at least one insurance policy.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An insurance verification system, comprising: at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions; and at least one processor that executes the instructions to: store information for at least one insurance policy in at least one block of a blockchain; determine an authentication strength level of the information according to an entity who provided the information or endorsed the information as accurate; and store an indication of the authentication strength level in association with the at least one block.

“2. The insurance verification system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a lowest authentication strength level when the entity is other than a licensed insurance agent or an insurer.

“3. The insurance verification system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a higher authentication strength level when the entity is a licensed insurance agent unassociated with the at least one insurance policy than when the entity is other than the licensed insurance agent or an insurer.

“4. The insurance verification system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a higher authentication strength level when the entity is a licensed insurance agent associated with the at least one insurance policy than when the entity is other than the licensed insurance agent associated with the at least one insurance policy or an insurer.

“5. The insurance verification system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor determines that the authentication strength level is a highest authentication strength level when the entity is an insurer.

“6. The insurance verification system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor: receives a claim associated with the at least one insurance policy; and processes the claim.

“7. The insurance verification system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor: compares the authentication strength level to a threshold; when the authentication strength level is above the threshold, pays the claim prior to submitting the claim to an insurer associated with the at least one insurance policy for payment; and otherwise, obtains payment for the claim from the insurer prior to paying the claim.

“8. An insurance verification system, comprising: at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions; and at least one processor that executes the instructions to: determine a set of requirements associated with a requester; generate a comparison of the set of requirements to information for at least one insurance policy associated with an insured that is stored in at least one block of a blockchain; and provide results of the comparison.

“9. The insurance verification system of claim 8, wherein the results indicate that the at least one insurance policy satisfies the set of requirements.

“10. The insurance verification system of claim 8, wherein the results indicate coverage required by the set of requirements that is missing from the at least one insurance policy.

“11. The insurance verification system of claim 10, wherein the results are provided as a prompt to obtain the coverage.

“12. The insurance verification system of claim 8, wherein the results indicate that an authentication strength level of the information required by the set of requirements is satisfied.

“13. The insurance verification system of claim 8, wherein the results prompt an entity to endorse the information as accurate in order for an authentication strength level of the information required by the set of requirements to be satisfied.

“14. The insurance verification system of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor: determines that a change affects the results; generates an updated comparison of the set of requirements to the information; and provides results of the updated comparison.

“15. An insurance verification system, comprising: at least one non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions; and at least one processor that executes the instructions to: store information for at least one insurance policy associated with an insured in at least one block of a blockchain; determine an authentication strength level of the information according to an entity who provided the information or endorsed the information as accurate; store an indication of the authentication strength level in association with the at least one block: determine a set of requirements associated with a requester; associate the information with the set of requirements; generate a comparison of the set of requirements to the information; provide results of the comparison; determine a change to the information or the set of requirements; and provide a notification of the change.

“16. The insurance verification system of claim 15, wherein the notification indicates that the information no longer satisfies the set of requirements.

“17. The insurance verification system of claim 15, wherein the notification alerts the entity who endorsed the information as accurate that the information has changed.

“18. The insurance verification system of claim 15, wherein the notification prompts the insured to obtain additional insurance coverage.

“19. The insurance verification system of claim 15, wherein the change corresponds to a reduction in coverage associated with the at least one insurance policy.

“20. The insurance verification system of claim 15, wherein the change corresponds to a changed beneficiary associated with the at least one insurance policy.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Naqvi, Hyder. Blockchain Insurance Verification System. Filed December 24, 2020 and posted June 30, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220207615%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220207615&RS=DN/20220207615

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