Patent Issued for Computer resource-based API transaction method and system (USPTO 11477134): United Services Automobile Association

2022 NOV 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Khmelev, Yevgeniy Viatcheslavovich (San Antonio, TX, US), Meyer, Gregory Brian (San Antonio, TX, US), Morley, David (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Christopher (The Colony, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (The Colony, TX, US), Schulz, Deborah Janette (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on March 31, 2021, was published online on October 18, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11477134 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Various types of application programming interface (API) service providers may provide one or more online services and/or resources to users, merchants, and different entities. For example, the application services (also referred to herein as application features) may be associated with a social networking, mapping, video game, media playback, such as streaming services and/or downloading of digital media, or other types of applications. However, each online service requires processing power by the online service and data transfer capabilities between the online service and the user’s computing device. In particular during times of high processing demand on the service provider, requests for processing by a client device to the service provider may expend a large amount of computing processing.

“In view of these types of expenditures, many businesses and other organizations would benefit from mechanisms by which to reduce the transactional costs associated with the execution, operation, maintenance, and supporting of the services (for example, provided via various APIs) on the provider’s own computers. For many business solutions, large numbers of end-users can often submit requests or ‘calls’ to applications that result in high-volume, or batch, transactions, rather than more infrequent interactive transactions. To combat these issues, API service providers may look for flexible and cost-effective ways to offer and maintain services for frequent consumer transactions.

“There is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the shortcomings discussed above.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a method of managing requests to an application programming interface (API) is disclosed. The method includes identifying, for a transaction processing task, a plurality of task units, and receiving, at a first time, from a user account, a first request to access a first service offered through the API. The method further includes determining that access to the first service is conditional upon performance of a first amount of the transaction processing task, and assigning, to the user account, a first set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount. Furthermore, the method includes receiving a first indication that at least the first set of task units has been performed, and granting to the user account, in response to receiving the first indication, a first access session of the first service.

“In another aspect, a system for managing requests to an application programming interface (API) includes a processor and machine-readable media. The machine-readable media include instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to identify, for a transaction processing task, a plurality of task units, and to receive, at a first time, from a user account, a first request to access a first service offered through the API. The instructions also cause the processor to determine that access to the first service is conditional upon performance of a first amount of the transaction processing task, and assign, to the user account, a first set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount. In addition, the instructions cause the processor to receive a first indication that at least the first set of task units has been performed, and grant to the user account, in response to receiving the first indication, a first access session of the first service.

“In another aspect, a system for managing requests to an application programming interface (API) includes means for means for identifying, for a transaction processing task, a plurality of task units, as well as means for receiving, at a first time, from a user account, a first request to access a first service offered through the API. The system also includes means for determining that access to the first service is conditional upon performance of a first amount of the transaction processing task, and means for assigning, to the user account, a first set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount. Furthermore, the system includes means for receiving a first indication that at least the first set of task units has been performed, and means for granting to the user account, in response to receiving the first indication, a first access session of the first service.

“Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of managing requests to an application programming interface (API), the method comprising: identifying, for a transaction processing task, a plurality of task units; receiving, at a first time, from a user account, a first request to access a first service offered through the API; determining that access to the first service is conditional upon performance of a first amount of the transaction processing task; assigning, to the user account, a first set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount; receiving a first indication that at least the first set of task units has been performed; granting to the user account, in response to receiving the first indication, a first access session of the first service; receiving, from the user account, a second request to access a second service offered through the API; determining that access to the second service is conditional upon performance of at least a second amount of the transaction processing task that differs from the first amount; assigning, to the user account, a second set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the second amount; receiving a second indication that the second set of task units has been performed; and granting to the user account, in response to receiving the second indication, a second access session of the second service.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein an access record granting a predetermined number of subsequent access sessions of the first service to the user account is generated in response to receiving the first indication.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving from the user account, at a second time after the first time, a second request to access the first service; determining that the user account is associated with the access record; and granting, in response to determining the user account is associated with the access record, a second access session of the first service.

“4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving, from the user account, a first number of requests to access the first service; determining the first number of requests exceeds the predetermined number; and assigning, to the user account, a second set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of task units further includes an artificially generated verification task which has a predefined outcome.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the API receives an average of a first number of requests for the first service over a first period of time and a second number of requests for the second service over the first period of time, and the difference between the first amount and the second amount is proportional to a difference between the first number and second number.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning, to the user account, in addition to the first set of task units, one or more verification tasks; receiving, from the user account, a signal corresponding to a response to the assignment of the first set of task units and one or more verification tasks, each verification task representing a dummy task with a predefined outcome; verifying the one or more verification tasks were performed correctly; and generating the first indication in response to verifying the one or more verification tasks were performed correctly.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at a second time before the first time, an initial request from the user account for trial access of the first service; determining that trial access to the first service is available to the user account; and granting to the user account a trial access session of the first service prior to the granting of the first access session.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that granting the user account access to the first service is associated with a first transactional cost and granting the user account access to the second service is associated with a second transactional cost that is lower than the first transactional cost; and wherein a calculation of the first amount is based at least on the first transactional cost, a calculation of the second amount is based at least on the second transactional cost, and the first amount is greater than the second amount.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, to the user account, a program configured to execute the performance of the first set of task units.

“11. A system of managing requests to an application programming interface (API), the system comprising a processor and machine-readable media including instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: identify, for a transaction processing task, a plurality of task units; receive, at a first time, from a user account, a first request to access a first service offered through the API; determine that access to the first service is conditional upon performance of a first amount of the transaction processing task; assign, to the user account, a first set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount; receive a first indication that at least the first set of task units has been performed; grant to the user account, in response to receiving the first indication, a first access session of the first service; receive, from the user account, a second request to access a second service offered through the API; determine that access to the second service is conditional upon performance of at least a second amount of the transaction processing task that differs from the first amount; assign, to the user account, a second set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the second amount; receive a second indication that the second set of task units has been performed; and grant to the user account, in response to receiving the second indication, a second access session of the second service.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein an access record granting a predetermined number of subsequent access sessions of the first service to the user account is generated in response to receiving the first indication.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: receive from the user account, at a second time after the first time, a second request to access the first service; determine that the user account is associated with the access record; and grant, in response to determining the user account is associated with the access record, a second access session of the first service.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: receive, from the user account, a first number of requests to access the first service; determine the first number of requests exceeds the predetermined number; and assign, to the user account, a second set of task units from the plurality of task units equivalent to the first amount.

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first set of task units further includes an artificially generated verification task which has a predefined outcome, and the instructions further cause the processor to: verify that the first set of task units has been performed only if the first indication includes a value corresponding to the predefined outcome.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the API receives an average of a first number of requests for the first service over a first period of time and a second number of requests for the second service over the first period of time, and the difference between the first amount and the second amount is proportional to a difference between the first number and second number.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: assign, to the user account, in addition to the first set of task units, one or more verification tasks; receive, from the user account, a signal corresponding to a response to the assignment of the first set of task units and one or more verification tasks, each verification task representing a task unit that has a known outcome; verify the one or more verification tasks were performed correctly; and generate the first indication in response to verifying the one or more verification tasks were performed correctly.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: receive, at a second time before the first time, an initial request from the user account for trial access of the first service; determine that trial access to the first service is available to the user account; and grant to the user account a trial access session of the first service prior to the granting of the first access session.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: determine that granting the user account access to the first service is associated with a first transactional cost and granting the user account access to the second service is associated with a second transactional cost that is lower than the first transactional cost; and wherein a calculation of the first amount is based at least on the first transactional cost, a calculation of the second amount is based at least on the second transactional cost, and the first amount is greater than the second amount.”

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

For additional information on this patent, see: Khmelev, Yevgeniy Viatcheslavovich. Computer resource-based API transaction method and system. U.S. Patent Number 11477134, filed March 31, 2021, and published online on October 18, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11477134.PN.&OS=PN/11477134RS=PN/11477134

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