Patent Issued for Asset tracker loss alert and notification process (USPTO 11741479): United Services Automobile Association

2023 SEP 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Dixon, David Patrick (Boerne, TX, US), Harris, Gary Scott (Shavano Park, TX, US), Hartman, Wayne Maurice (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on October 4, 2021, was published online on August 29, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11741479, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Tracking the location and movement of assets can be a valuable undertaking for many owners. Assets of the company, in and of themselves, are often quite valuable and monitoring the location of such assets can be important to prevent theft or unauthorized use of the asset. For example, heavy construction equipment is commonly very valuable. Furthermore, such equipment is frequently moved to new locations and used in construction activities. Such equipment is either owned by a particular construction company or leased from a leasing company. In either case, the owner of the equipment generally desires to have knowledge of the location of such equipment, and also to be notified if the equipment is moved away from a location.

“The equipment owner may desire to have such knowledge in the case of an unauthorized use of the asset or theft of the asset. For example, if the equipment owner has leased the equipment to be used at a certain site, movement of the equipment away from that site may indicate that a thief is attempting to steal the equipment. Having the location of the equipment may thus help recover any stolen equipment, or stop a theft that is in progress. This ability helps to reduce the cost of insurance for the company. Numerous other examples exist where it may be desired to track the location of assets for insurance providers.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The purpose and advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be set forth in and apparent from the description that follows. Additional advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be realized and attained by the devices, systems and methods particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as from the appended drawings.

“In accordance with a purpose of the illustrated embodiments, in one aspect, a computer-implemented method and system for tracking insured assets is disclosed in which provided is one or more asset identifiers corresponding to one or more assets to be monitored wherein each of the one or more assets is attached to a tracking device. The one or more assets is preferably covered by one or more insurance policies. Notification is received from a variety of sources that at least one asset has moved from a predetermined location (e.g., a dwelling, insured property, etc.). An insurance policy is then identified that is associated with the at least one asset. A policyholder associated with the insurance policy is then notified by preferably sending a notification to a policyholder containing instructions for remedial actions from the policyholder regarding the at least one asset such that one or more remedial actions based on received policyholder’s instructions may be initiated.

“In accordance with another aspect, a computer-implemented method for tracking insured assets is provided. One or more asset identifiers corresponding to one or more assets to be monitored are received. Each of the one or more assets is attached to a tracking device. Monitored assets are covered by one or more insurance policies. One or more geofence regions are defined associated with the one or more monitored assets. A location of each of the monitored assets is estimated, at least periodically. In response to determining that the estimated location of at least one of the monitored assets is outside of the corresponding one or more geofence regions, an insurance policy associated with this at least one asset is determined. A policyholder associated with the insurance policy is notified by sending a notification to policyholder’s-preferred device. The notification inquires instructions for remedial actions from the policyholder. One or more remedial actions are initiated based on received policyholder’s instructions.

“This summary section is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described subsequently in the detailed description section. This summary section 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.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An asset tracking electronic device wirelessly coupled to an asset tracking server for detecting loss of an asset and enabling remedial actions on a remote user cellular device regarding the loss of the asset, comprising: a location sensor co-located with the asset for determining the location of the asset wherein the asset is assigned an ID associated with an insurance policy covering the asset; a processor, coupled to the location sensor, for determining a geofence for the asset and determining when the asset has moved outside of the geofence such that a wireless signal is sent to an asset tracking server, whereby the asset tracking server is configured to: determine an insurance policy for the asset contingent upon the ID of the asset determined to have moved outside of the geofence; determine a probability of recovery for the asset based at least in part on whether a location sensor stays in communication with the asset tracking server, and the location of the asset when it was determined to have moved outside of the geofence; and instruct a single GUI to be generated on the remote user cellular device indicating a first user selectable indicator to enable user interaction with the GUI of the cellular device to initiate an insurance claim for the identified stolen asset, and a second user selectable indicator to enable user notification to a law enforcement agency regarding the asset determined stolen wherein the second user selectable indicator is separate from the first user selectable indicator on the GUI of the user’s cellular device.

“2. The asset tracking electronic device as recited in claim 1 wherein instructing a single GUI to be generated on the remote user cellular device further includes indicating identification of the asset determined to have moved outside the geofence.

“3. The asset tracking electronic device as recited in claim 2 wherein instructing a single GUI to be generated on the remote user cellular device further includes identification of the location the asset has been moved from.

“4. The asset tracking electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the asset tracking server is further configured to provide real-time notification to the user cellular device regarding a status update concerning retrieval of the asset determined to have moved outside the geofence.

“5. The asset tracking device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the asset is located at a location based, at least in part, on passage of a period of time during which the rate of movement of the asset has remained at or below a preset threshold.

“6. The asset tracking device as recited in claim 5, wherein the geofence is established based on movement of the asset relative to the location during the period of time.

“7. The asset tracking device as recited in claim 1, further including: a RF transceiver; a sensing unit; a GPS receiver; and a memory having instructions for enabling wireless communication with the asset tracking server.

“8. The asset tracking device as recited in claim 1, wherein the asset tracking server is further configured to initiate an insurance claim for the asset based on instructions entered by a policyholder via the GUI generated on the user’s cellular device.

“9. The asset tracking device as recited in claim 8, wherein the insurance policy comprises one of: homeowner’s insurance policy, automotive insurance policy, renter’s insurance policy, business insurance policy, valuable personal property insurance policy and umbrella insurance policy.”

For more information, see this patent: Dixon, David Patrick. Asset tracker loss alert and notification process. U.S. Patent Number 11741479, filed October 4, 2021, and published online on August 29, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11741479)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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