Patent Application Titled “Processing an Application for Insurance Coverage” Published Online (USPTO 20230029477): Patent Application

2023 FEB 17 (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 Wilson, Thomas J. (Chicago, IL, US); Yager, Floyd M. (Park Ridge, IL, US), filed on May 24, 2022, was made available online on February 2, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Today’s consumer is more pressed than ever for time. With increasing time demands placed, many consumers do not have much time to shop, and what time they do have seems to be consumed in reviewing the massive amount of information they encounter in shopping. The pressures attendant the time constraints and information can pervade a consumer’s shopping experience, including shopping for insurance.

“New technologies, however, now make possible aids to help consumers as they make insurance choices in much less time that they could years ago. The challenge is how to harness those technologies.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Methods and systems are provided for creating insurance packages and providing insurance services. Insurance packages may be created by performing research to identify a target population and a set of insurance features desired by the target population. The set of insurance features may be bundled into an insurance package. The packages may include standard components, combinations of optimized components, optimized combinations of standard components and various combinations. The insurance packages may provide automobile insurance, homeowner’s insurance and other types of insurance

“In certain embodiments of the invention, aspects of the present invention can be partially or wholly implemented with a computer-readable medium, for example, by storing computer-executable instructions or modules, or by utilizing computer-readable data structures.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures.

“The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: determining, by a server computing device implementing a computer program for optimizing insurance, a cost of an automobile insurance policy for an initial automobile insurance policy period that provides indemnification and that includes an optional feature that provides a reward; causing, by the server computing device, the automobile insurance policy to be offered for sale via at least one electronic visual display for the initial automobile insurance policy period that includes the optional feature that provides the reward, wherein causing the automobile insurance policy to be offered for sale via the at least one electronic visual display comprises receiving, by the server computing device, from a first terminal computing device, selection information from a web browser running on the first terminal computing device, the selection information identifying one or more selections made by a user of the web browser running on the first terminal computing device to customize an insurance product; causing, by the server computing device, the automobile insurance policy to be renewed with the optional feature for a subsequent automobile insurance policy period; when a first rate-affecting accident occurs during any policy period during which the optional feature was included, causing, by the server computing device, the automobile insurance policy to be maintained without altering the cost of the automobile insurance policy based on the first rate-affecting accident; and when a second of two rate-affecting accidents occurs during the subsequent automobile insurance policy period, causing, by the server computing device, the automobile insurance policy to be maintained without altering the cost of the automobile insurance policy based on the first rate-affecting accident, the optional feature providing that the second rate-affecting accident will not alter the cost of the automobile insurance policy based on the second rate-affecting accident occurring more than a preset time period after the first rate-affecting accident, wherein the server computing device is configured to grant an additional deductible reduction amount to be applied to at least one deductible during a subsequent automobile insurance policy period based on a second optional feature of the automobile insurance policy which provides for granting of the additional deductible reduction amount when no rate affecting accidents are assigned to the automobile insurance policy during an experience period.”

For more information, see this patent application: Wilson, Thomas J.; Yager, Floyd M. Processing an Application for Insurance Coverage. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230029477, filed May 24, 2022 and posted February 2, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230029477)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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