Patent Application Titled “Using a Distributed Ledger to Determine Fault in Subrogation” Published Online (USPTO 20230360140): Patent Application

2023 NOV 29 (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 Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL, US); Clayton, Wendy H. (Franklin, TN, US); Flesher, Kim E. (Normal, IL, US); Graff, Douglas A. (Mountain View, MO, US); Leise, William J. (Normal, IL, US); Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL, US); McCoy, Anthony (Normal, IL, US); McCullough, Stacie A. (Bloomington, IL, US); Runge, Travis Charles (Heyworth, IL, US); Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL, US), filed on June 29, 2023, was made available online on November 9, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The insurance claim process may involve a tremendous number of communications and interactions between parties involved in the process. Potential parties to the claim process may be insurance companies, repair shops, lawyers, arbitrators, government agencies, hospitals, drivers, and collection/collections agency. Sometimes the costs of repairs may be disputed and parties may pursue subrogation for particular charges. As an example, when an insured person suffers a covered loss, an insurer may pay costs to the insured person and pursue subrogation from another party involved in the loss. If an insured vehicle is involved in a collision and suffers a loss, the insurer may compensate the vehicle owner according to an insurance agreement. If, for example, the vehicle owner was not at fault in the collision, the insurer may pursue damages from another party, such as the insurer of the party who was at fault in the collision. An insurance agreement may include an obligation of an insured to assign the insured’s claim against a party at fault to the insurer, who may then collect on the claim on the insured’s behalf.

“Settling a subrogation payment may be a lengthy, complicated process. The various parties (e.g., parties at fault in a vehicle collision, owners of the vehicles, insurers, etc.) may need to exchange information relating to the collision to determine which party was at fault. Sources of information relevant to a fault information and/or subrogation payment may include information regarding parties involved in a loss, forensic data regarding the loss, vehicle data regarding a loss, etc. The various parties may verify and share information from a variety of sources, including information held by parties involved in a loss and their insurers, and information obtained from third parties (e.g., governmental entities, independent contractors, etc.).

“The parties to a subrogation payment (e.g., insurers) may make proposals to one another to settle the subrogation claim. A proposal may include an accounting of damages, such as the costs to a vehicle owner whose vehicle was damaged. If an insured person suffered an injury in a collision, the injured person’s health care costs may be included in the accounting of damages. One or both of the parties to a subrogation claim may rely on independent third parties to assess costs, such as a repair cost estimate by an authorized automotive repair services provider for damage incurred in a collision. To settle the subrogation claim, the parties may indicate acceptance or approval of damages calculations, and a payment amount agreed upon between the parties to settle the claim. Parties may rely on a third-party intermediary to handle subrogation negotiations and resolution (e.g., validate information relating to a loss and facilitating communications between the insurers) at added expense.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Systems and methods are disclosed for utilizing a distributed ledger, or blockchain, to manage an insurance claim process, in particular, a subrogation claim process. The systems and methods disclose using evidence oracles for inputting information into the blockchain, utilizing machine learning to suggest amounts for the subrogation process, a line item dispute mechanism, and creating/managing a distributed ledger in response to a vehicle being in an collision. The methods and systems may make use of secure transactions and smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

“The present embodiments further may relate to insurance and handling insurance claims. Sensor, image, or other data may be collected from various sources, such as mobile devices, one or more vehicles (such as smart or autonomous vehicles), smart infrastructure, satellites, drones, and/or smart or interconnected homes. The data collected may be analyzed by artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms to (1) identify whether a vehicle collision occurred; (2) determine a percentage of fault (for the drivers or autonomous vehicles or systems); (3) determine the veracity of an insurance claim or identify potential fraud or buildup; (4) facilitate subrogation or arbitration processes; (5) determine and assign liability to vehicle manufacturers or drivers; (6) create new blockchains and/or individual blocks for blockchains associated with a particular insurance claim, individual, or vehicle; (7) provide payments or e-payments among parties; and/or (8) facilitate other functionality discussed herein.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of handling an insurance claim via a shared ledger may be provided. The method may include, via one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers: (1) receiving, at one or more processors, an electronic notification of a vehicle collision; (2) receiving, at the one or more processors, sensor data (such as telematics, image, audio, vehicle operational, or other data) related to the vehicle collision; (3) determining, at the one or more processors, a percentage of fault of the vehicle collision for one or more vehicles, vehicle systems, and/or drivers based upon at least in part analysis of the sensor data collected; and/or (4) creating, at the one or more processors, a blockchain for the vehicle collision with one or more links to the sensor image data and an indication of the percentage of fault(s) determined to facilitate blockchain-based claim handling. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of handling an insurance claim via a shared ledger may be provided. The method may include, via one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers: (1) receiving, at one or more processors, sensor data (such as telematics, image, audio, vehicle operational, or other data); (2) determining, at the one or more processors, a vehicle collision occurred by at least in part analysis of the sensor data; (3) determining, at the one or more processors, a percentage of fault of the vehicle collision for one or more vehicles, vehicle systems, and/or drivers based upon at least in part analysis of the sensor data; and/or (4) creating, at the one or more processors, a blockchain for the vehicle collision with one or more links to the sensor image data and an indication of the percentage of fault(s) determined to facilitate blockchain-based claim handling. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer system configured to handle or process an insurance claim via a shared ledger may be provided. The system may include one or more processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers configured to: (1) receive an electronic notification of a vehicle collision; (2) receive sensor data (such as telematics, image, audio, vehicle operational, or other data) related to the vehicle collision; (3) determine a percentage of fault of the vehicle collision for one or more vehicles, vehicle systems, and/or drivers based upon at least in part analysis of the sensor data; and/or (4) create a blockchain for the vehicle collision with one or more links to the sensor data and an indication of the percentage of fault(s) determined to facilitate blockchain-based claim handling. The system may include additional, fewer, or alternate components and actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“The methods may be implemented via computer systems, and may include additional, less, or alternate actions or functionality. Systems or computer-readable media storing instructions for implementing all or part of the method described above may also be provided in some aspects. Systems for implementing such methods may include one or more of the following: a special-purpose computing device, a personal electronic device, a processing unit of a vehicle, a remote server, one or more sensors, one or more communication modules configured to communicate wirelessly via radio links, radio frequency links, and/or wireless communication channels, and/or one or more program memories coupled to one or more processors of the personal electronic device, processing unit of the vehicle, or remote server. Such program memories may store instructions to cause the one or more processors to implement part or all of the method described above. Additional or alternative features described herein below may be included in some aspects.

“This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the Detailed Descriptions. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following description of the preferred aspects, which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present aspects may be capable of other and different aspects, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive

“The Figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of handling vehicle collision-related data via a blockchain maintained by a plurality of nodes connected via a network, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more processors of a first node of the plurality of nodes, a first transaction broadcast to the blockchain by a source and including sensor data; verifying, at the one or more processors, an identity of the source using a cryptographic proof-of-identity included in the first transaction; determining, at the one or more processors, that a vehicle collision involving a vehicle occurred based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determining, at the one or more processors, an operational mode for the vehicle, the operational mode indicative of whether a human driver, the vehicle, or a vehicle system was in control of the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determining, at the one or more processors, a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision attributable to at least one of the human driver, the vehicle, or the vehicle system, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data, and the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision; generating, at the one or more processors, a second transaction including a cryptographic proof-of-identity of an entity associated with the first node, an indication of the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, and an indication of the percentage of fault; and broadcasting, by the one or more processors, the second transaction to at least one other node of the plurality of nodes.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the one or more processors, an electronic arbitration demand associated with the vehicle collision; and generating, at the one or more processors, an electronic recommendation based upon, at least in part, analysis of the first percentage of fault, the second percentage of fault, and the electronic arbitration demand.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: generating, at the one or more processors, a new block including the electronic recommendation or a link thereto or a hash thereof, and adding, at the one or more processors, the new block to the blockchain.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data includes data generated by smart infrastructure or by a vehicle not involved in the vehicle collision in the vicinity of the vehicle collision.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data includes telematics data collected by the vehicle, a mobile device traveling within the vehicle, another vehicle involved in the vehicle collision, another vehicle in the vicinity of the vehicle collision not involved in the vehicle collision, or combinations thereof.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the first percentage of fault and the second percentage of fault includes inputting the sensor data collected into a machine learning programmed trained to identify a percentage of fault attributable to one or more factors based upon sensor data.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining a vehicle collision occurred based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data collected includes inputting the sensor data collected into a machine learning programmed trained to identify that vehicle collision occurred based upon sensor data.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning, at the one or more processors, liability to a manufacturer of the vehicle or the human driver based upon whom had control before, during, or after the vehicle collision.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, at the one or more processors, which vehicle or human driver had the last clear chance to avoid the vehicle collision based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data collected.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining which vehicle or human driver had the last clear chance to avoid the vehicle collision based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data collected further comprises: inputting, at the one or more processors, the sensor image data into a machine learning program trained to identify a party or vehicle that had the last clear chance to avoid the vehicle collision using sensor data.

“11. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for handling vehicle collision-related data via a blockchain maintained by a plurality of nodes connected via a network that, when executed by one or more processors of a first node of the plurality of nodes, cause the one or more processors to: receive a first transaction broadcast to the blockchain by a source and including sensor data; verify an identity of the source using a cryptographic proof-of-identity included in the first transaction; determine that a vehicle collision involving a vehicle occurred based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determine an operational mode for the vehicle, the operational mode indicative of whether a human driver, the vehicle, or a vehicle system was in control of the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determine a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision attributable to at least one of the human driver, the vehicle, or the vehicle system, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data, and the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision; generate a second transaction including a cryptographic proof-of-identity of an entity associated with the first node, an indication of the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, and an indication of the percentage of fault; and broadcast the second transaction to at least one other node of the plurality of nodes.

“12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the sensor data includes data generated by smart infrastructure or by a vehicle not involved in the vehicle collision in the vicinity of the vehicle collision.

“13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the sensor data includes telematics data collected by the vehicle, a mobile device traveling within the vehicle, another vehicle involved in the vehicle collision, another vehicle in the vicinity of the vehicle collision not involved in the vehicle collision, or combinations thereof.

“14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to determine the first percentage of fault and the second percentage of fault by inputting the sensor data collected into a machine learning programmed trained to identify a percentage of fault attributable to one or more factors based upon sensor data.

“15. A computer system for handling vehicle collision-related data via a blockchain maintained by a plurality of nodes connected via a network, the system comprising: a network interface configured to interface with a processor of a first node of the plurality of nodes; one or more sensors; a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions and configured to interface with the processor; and the processor configured to interface with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: receive a first transaction broadcast to the blockchain by a source and including sensor data; verify an identity of the source using a cryptographic proof-of-identity included in the first transaction; determine that a vehicle collision involving a vehicle occurred based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determine an operational mode for the vehicle, the operational mode indicative of whether a human driver, the vehicle, or a vehicle system was in control of the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data; determine a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision attributable to at least one of the human driver, the vehicle, or the vehicle system, based upon, at least in part, analysis of the sensor data, and the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision; generate a second transaction including a cryptographic proof-of-identity of an entity associated with the first node, an indication of the operational mode for the vehicle at the time of the vehicle collision, and an indication of the percentage of fault; and broadcast the second transaction to at least one other node of the plurality of nodes.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensor data includes data generated by smart infrastructure or by a vehicle not involved in the vehicle collision in the vicinity of the vehicle collision.

“17. The system of claim 15, wherein the sensor data includes telematics data collected by the vehicle, a mobile device traveling within the vehicle, another vehicle involved in the vehicle collision, another vehicle in the vicinity of the vehicle collision not involved in the vehicle collision, or combinations thereof.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein to determine the first percentage of fault and the second percentage of fault, the processor is further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: input the sensor data collected into a machine learning programmed trained to identify a percentage of fault attributable to one or more factors based upon sensor data.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent application: Call, Shawn M.; Clayton, Wendy H.; Flesher, Kim E.; Graff, Douglas A.; Leise, William J.; Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa; McCoy, Anthony; McCullough, Stacie A.; Runge, Travis Charles; Skaggs, Jaime. Using a Distributed Ledger to Determine Fault in Subrogation. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230360140, filed June 29, 2023 and posted November 9, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230360140)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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