Patent Application Titled “Methods And Systems For Receipt Capturing Process” Published Online (USPTO 20230222828): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 JUL 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Jennings, Robert Alpine (Bloomington, IL, US); Kobulnicky, Ben (Bloomington, IL, US); Lommatsch, Theresa E. (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on February 27, 2023, was made available online on July 13, 2023.

The assignee for this patent application is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Consumers purchase hundreds of items every year, and consumers may be required to retain receipts of the purchased items for future access. The purchase receipt may be required to return a purchased item or to receive warranty benefits. It would be burdensome for the customers to retain receipts of purchases to document expenses or for warranty purposes.

“For example, a consumer buys a 60 inch television at a big box retailer, which comes with a one-year warranty. Within one year, the television stops working. The consumer cannot find the receipt of the television, and cannot recall when and/or where it was purchased. It would be difficult for the consumer to know whether it is still covered under the warranty. Even if the consumer remembers that it is within one year from the purchase date, the consumer may be typically required to produce the purchase receipt with the retailer’s name on the receipt to prove the original purchase date and the purchase price to receive warranty benefits.

“Conventional techniques may be ineffective, inefficient, costly, awkward, and/or include additional drawbacks as well.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The present embodiments relate to computer systems and methods that may improve efficiency of a receipt capturing process. In some aspects, a purchase of an item (or service) at a merchant location or online may trigger or cause a mobile device to ask the purchaser if they would like to capture receipt information, along with other information, such as notes or warranty information, and store the receipt and other information at a remotely accessible database, memory unit, and/or server for future use or reference. The receipt information may be captured via a photo of a physical receipt, or captured by saving an electronic receipt or email received from a physical or online merchant computing device or server.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for conducting a receipt capturing process may be provided. The method may be implemented via one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or transceivers. The method may include, via the one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or transceivers: (1) determining whether a customer purchased an item (such as a product or service) using an account that has a receipt capturing tool activated; (2) transmitting, in response to determining that the customer purchased the item (e.g., the product or service) using the account that has the receipt capturing tool activated, a captured receipt alert to the customer inquiring whether to capture a receipt of the purchased item; (3) analyzing, in response to receiving an indication to capture the receipt of the purchased item, the receipt to determine receipt information; and/or (4) storing the receipt information in a secure database. The receipt information may include information detailing a purchased item, a purchase date, a purchase amount, seller information, a retention period, warranty information, and a category of which the receipt is stored in the secure database. The receipt information may be stored in the database or memory unit that may be remotely searchable, such as via a customer mobile device. The method may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer system for capturing a receipt associated with a purchase of an item may be provided. The computer system may include: (a) a network; (b) a computing device; and © a server communicatively coupled to the computing device via the network. The server may be configured to: (1) determine whether a customer purchased an item (such as a product or service) using an account that has a receipt capturing tool activated; (2) transmit, in response to a determination that the customer purchased the item (e.g., the product or service) using the account that has the receipt capturing tool activated, a captured receipt alert to the customer inquiring whether to capture a receipt of the purchased item; (3) analyze, in response to a receipt of an indication to capture the receipt of the purchased item, the receipt to determine receipt information; and/or (4) store the receipt information in a secure database. The receipt information may include information detailing a purchased item, a purchase date, a purchase amount, seller information, a retention period, warranty information, and a category of which the receipt is stored in the secure database. The receipt information may be stored in a database or memory unit in communication with the server and that may be remotely searchable, such as via a customer mobile device. The system may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“While multiple embodiments are disclosed, still other embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which shows and describes illustrative embodiments of the disclosed subject matter. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

“Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Although the drawings represent embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings are not necessarily to scale, and certain features may be exaggerated in order to better illustrate and explain the present disclosure. The exemplification set out herein illustrates an embodiment of the disclosure, in one form, and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner.

“For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the present disclosure, reference below is made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, which are described below. The exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise form disclosed in the following detailed description. Rather, these exemplary embodiments were chosen and described so that others skilled in the art may utilize their teachings. One of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the embodiments provided can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, and/or a combination thereof. Programming code according to the embodiments can be implemented in any viable programming language or a combination of a high-level programming language and a lower level programming language.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for receipt capturing, comprising, via one or more computing devices: responding to a purchase using a customer account having a receipt capturing tool activated by transmitting a query to the customer whether to capture a receipt of the purchase; responding to receipt of an indication to capture the receipt by automatically capturing the receipt; and storing information from the captured receipt in a database.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receipt is in one of a physical or electronic form.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining whether to activate the receipt capturing tool of the customer’s account; and receiving, in response to activating the receipt capturing tool, a preferred communication method for receiving queries whether to capture a receipt.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the query includes at least one of a purchased service, a purchased product, a purchase date, a purchase amount, and seller information.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information includes at least one of a purchased service, a purchased product, a purchase date, a purchase amount, seller information, a retention period, warranty information, insurance information, a payment type, and a category of which the receipt is stored in the database.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising linking the information in the database to a warranty covering a purchased service or a purchased product to facilitate remote retrieval of the information and the warranty at a later data via a customer computing device.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option to purchase a warranty for the purchase based upon the information.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information is remotely searchable via a customer computing device by at least one of a type of purchase, a purchase date, a purchase data range, a purchase amount, a purchase amount range, seller information, store, store chain, merchant chain, merchant, customer notes, and payment type.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising responding to an indication not to capture the receipt by: receiving a photograph of a hard copy of the receipt via a customer computing device; obtaining or receiving an electronic receipt or a screen shot of the electronic receipt; or obtaining or receiving an email detailing the purchase or a screenshot of the email.

“10. A computer system for capturing a receipt associated with a purchase, comprising: a network; a computing device; and a server communicatively coupled to the computing device via the network, the server configured to: respond to a purchase using a customer account having a receipt capturing tool activated by transmitting a query to the customer whether to capture a receipt of the purchase; respond to receipt of an indication to capture the receipt by automatically capturing the receipt; and store information from the receipt in a database.

“11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the receipt is in one of a physical or electronic form.

“12. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to: determine whether to activate the receipt capturing tool of the customer’s account; and receive, in response to activating the receipt capturing tool, a preferred communication method for receiving queries whether to capture a receipt.

“13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the query includes at least one of a purchased service, a purchased product, a purchase date, a purchase amount, seller information, a retention period, warranty information, and a category of which the receipt is stored in the database.

“14. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to link the information in the database to a warranty covering a purchased service or a purchased product to facilitate remote retrieval of the information and the warranty at a later date via a customer computing device.

“15. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to provide an option to purchase a warranty for the purchase service based upon the information.

“16. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the information is remotely searchable via a customer computing device by at least one of a type of purchase, a purchase date, a purchase data range, a purchase amount, a purchase amount range, seller information, store, store chain, merchant chain, merchant, customer notes, and payment type.

“17. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to respond to an indication not to capture the receipt by: receiving a photograph of a hard copy of the receipt via a customer computing device; obtain or receive an electronic receipt or a screen shot of the electronic receipt; or obtain or receive an email detailing the purchase or a screen shot of the email.

“18. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for receipt capturing that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to: respond to a purchase using a customer account having a receipt capturing tool activated by transmitting a query to the customer whether to capture a receipt of the purchase; respond to receipt of an indication to capture the receipt by automatically capturing the receipt; and store information from the receipt in a database.

“19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further storing executable instructions that cause the computer system to: determine whether to activate the receipt capturing tool of the customer’s account; and receive, in response to activating the receipt capturing tool, a preferred communication method for receiving queries whether to capture a receipt.

“20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein further storing executable instructions that cause the computer system to link the information in the database to a warranty covering a purchased service or a purchased product to facilitate remote retrieval of the information and the warranty at a later date via a customer computing device.”

For more information, see this patent application: Jennings, Robert Alpine; Kobulnicky, Ben; Lommatsch, Theresa E. Methods And Systems For Receipt Capturing Process. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230222828, filed February 27, 2023 and posted July 13, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230222828)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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