“Construction of Digital Identity Documents in a Manner That Allows the User to Select Which Attributes Are to Be Revealed” in Patent Application…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

"Construction of Digital Identity Documents in a Manner That Allows the User to Select Which Attributes Are to Be Revealed" in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20170302455)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- A patent application by the inventors Abt, JR., William F. (Nashua, NH); Gisolfi, Daniel A. (Hopewell, NY); Johnson, Asher C. (Austin, TX); Reed, Aaron K. (Austin, TX), filed on April 15, 2016, was made available online on October 26, 2017, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents (see also Patents).

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: "Currently, institutions, such as government agencies (e.g., department of motor vehicles), issue identity cards or documents which may be used to identify a person or verify aspects of a person's personal identity. Identity document may include, for example, a driver's license, a fishing license, a hunting license, a passport, a health insurance card, a firearm owner's identification card, a boating license, a commercial driver's license, etc. Typically, such identity documents are issued in the form of a thermal plastic card or paper by these institutions (or 'issuer') based on user data (e.g., name, address, birthdate, height, etc. of the user) stored in databases.

"Unfortunately, by relying upon thermal plastic cards or paper, there are several drawbacks. For example, when a user presents an identity document, such as to a verifier (e.g., merchant), there is no choice but to present the entire identity document which may include personal information that is not needed to be seen by the verifier. For example, a merchant does not need to know the address of the individual when the individual is purchasing alcoholic beverages to verify that the individual is over 21 years of age. However, when the individual presents a driver's license to the merchant, the merchant will have access to information besides the age of the individual, such as the name and address of the individual.

"Other drawbacks include requiring to physically recreate and reissue another identity document based on changes that are reflected in the identity document, such as a change in address or a change in a person's name. However, by physically recreating and reissuing another identity document, there may be a period of time in which the user has no current accurate identity document.

"Another drawback is that the ability to present information regarding the services (e.g., phone number of a nurse help line) concerning the particular type of identity document (e.g., health insurance card) is limited based on the physical size and layout of the identity document.

"Hence, the current process in issuing identity documents in the form of thermal plastic cards or paper is subject to several drawbacks."

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for facilitating the generating of digital identity documents comprises receiving a selection and initialization of properties to be used in a digital identity document. The method further comprises building, by a processor, a template using the selected properties. The method additionally comprises presenting a list of built templates to a user or a verifier to select. Furthermore, the method comprises receiving a notification of a template selected by the user or the verifier from the list of templates to be used in generating a corresponding digital identity document. Additionally, the method comprises providing an acquisition uniform resource locator associated with the selected template to the user or the verifier to be used by the user or the verifier to request the digital identity document from an issuer. In addition, the method comprises receiving the digital identity document from the issuer. The method further comprises delivering the received digital identity document to the user or the verifier.

"Other forms of the embodiment of the method described above are in a system and in a computer program product.

"The foregoing has outlined rather generally the features and technical advantages of one or more embodiments of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the present invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be described hereinafter which may form the subject of the claims of the present invention."

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Abt, JR., William F.; Gisolfi, Daniel A.; Johnson, Asher C.; Reed, Aaron K. Construction of Digital Identity Documents in a Manner That Allows the User to Select Which Attributes Are to Be Revealed. Filed April 15, 2016 and posted October 26, 2017. Patent URL: http://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=%2220170302455%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20170302455&RS=DN/20170302455

Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Health Insurance.