Patent Issued for Distributed Ledger System For Carrier Discovery (USPTO 10,929,931)

2021 MAR 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 10,929,931, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Bryant, Ronny S. (Bloomington, IL); McCullough, Stacie A. (Bloomington, IL); Hill, Mitchell J. (Bloomington, IL); Alt, Jacob J. (Downs, IL); Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL); Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL); Bellas, Eric (Bloomington, IL); King, Vicki (Bloomington, IL); Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL).

This patent was filed on January 12, 2018 and was published online on March 8, 2021.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Generally speaking, companies may utilize centralized databases or servers for a number of purposes. For example, insurance companies may maintain, at a centralized database, information pertaining to an individual’s insurance policy or policies. However, this information may not be readily accessible by the insured individual or by third parties who otherwise might be authorized to access the information.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for facilitating insurance carrier discovery may include any one or more of the following: (A) configuring or implementing a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servers maintaining a copy of a distributed ledger; (B) performing the following when an insurance event pertaining to an insurance claim is detected: (i) generating, at a first server from the plurality of servers, a transaction record including data corresponding to the insurance event; (ii) proposing the transaction record to one or more other servers from the plurality of servers; (iii) performing, via the plurality of servers, a consensus analysis of the transaction record utilizing a consensus mechanism; and/or (iv) when the consensus analysis indicates that the plurality of servers have formed a consensus, storing the transaction record at the distributed ledger by storing the transaction record to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and/or (C) performing an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger. The transaction may be stored to a blockchain on the distributed ledger. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“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 claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating insurance carrier discovery, the method comprising: implementing a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servers maintaining a copy of a distributed ledger; responding, via a first server from the plurality of servers, to a detection of an insurance event by: (i) generating, at a first server from the plurality of servers, a transaction record including data corresponding to the insurance event and (ii) proposing the transaction record to one or more other servers from the plurality of servers; performing, via at least three of the plurality of servers, a consensus analysis of the transaction record utilizing a consensus mechanism, wherein the consensus mechanism is any one or more of: a proof of work mechanism, a proof of stake mechanism, a proof of activity mechanism, a proof of burn mechanism, a proof of capacity mechanism, or a proof of elapsed time mechanism; and when the consensus analysis indicates that the at least three servers have formed a consensus, storing the transaction record at the distributed ledger by storing the transaction record to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and performing an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger, including generating a report identifying the carrier listed in the transaction record.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the insurance event includes any one or more of the following: an identifier for an insured individual filing the insurance claim; and an insurance provider that provides each policy held by the insured individual.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the insurance event includes any one or more of the following: an identifier for each policy held by the insured individual; a description of each policy held by the insured individual; one or more limits for each policy held by the insured individual; and one or more premiums for each policy held by the insured individual.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the insurance function comprises performing any one or more of: (i) calculating an estimated cost to repair or replace damaged property; (ii) calculating an estimated cost to compensate for special damages; and (iii) calculating an estimated cost for other expenses.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of servers include: an insurance provider server; a vendor server; and a mobile device of an insured individual.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the insurance function is a payment of a claim.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the insurance function is any one or more of: providing an offer; accepting the offer; providing a counter-offer; and submitting an estimate.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the transaction record at the distributed ledger comprises: storing the transaction to a block.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein performing the consensus analysis comprises generating a hash value for the transaction, and utilizing the hash value for the transaction to generate a hash value for the block.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the consensus mechanism is: the proof of stake mechanism, or the proof of activity mechanism.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the consensus mechanism is: the proof of burn mechanism, the proof of capacity mechanism, or the proof of elapsed time mechanism.

“12. A system for facilitating insurance carrier discovery, the system comprising: a plurality of servers maintaining a distributed ledger for tracking payment events pertaining to insurance claims, wherein each of the plurality of servers includes a memory storing: (A) a copy of the distributed ledger, and (B) instructions that, when executed, cause the respective server to respond to a detection of a payment event by causing the respective server to: (i) generate, at the respective server, a transaction record including data corresponding to the payment event, and (ii) broadcast the transaction record to others of the plurality of servers; wherein the plurality of servers are configured to: (i) perform, among at least three of the plurality of servers, a consensus analysis of the broadcasted transaction record utilizing a consensus mechanism, wherein the consensus mechanism is any one or more of: a proof of work mechanism, a proof of stake mechanism, a proof of activity mechanism, a proof of burn mechanism, a proof of capacity mechanism, or a proof of elapsed time mechanism; (ii) store the transaction record at the distributed ledger when the consensus analysis indicates that the at least three servers have formed a consensus by storing the transaction record to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and (iii) perform an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the payment event is any one or more of: a calculation of an estimate; a submission of an offer; an arrival at a settlement; and a completion of a payment.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of servers are configured to perform the insurance function by calculating any one or more of: (i) an estimated cost to repair or replace damaged property; (ii) an estimated cost to compensate for special damages; and (iii) an estimated cost for other expenses.

“15. The system of claim 12, wherein the data corresponding to the insurance event includes any one or more of the following: an identifier for an insured individual filing the insurance claim; an identifier for each policy held by the insured individual; one or more limits for each policy held by the insured individual; one or more premiums for each policy held by the insured individual; and an insurance provider that provides each policy held by the insured individual.

“16. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of servers include: an insurance provider server; a vendor server; and a mobile device of an insured individual.

“17. The system of claim 12, wherein the insurance function is a payment of a claim.

“18. The system of claim 12, wherein the insurance function is any one or more of: providing an offer; accepting the offer; providing a counter-offer; and submitting an estimate.

“19. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of servers are configured to store the transaction record at the distributed ledger by storing the transaction to a block.

“20. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of servers are configured to perform the consensus analysis by generating a hash value for the transaction and utilizing the hash value for the transaction to generate a hash value for the block.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Bryant, Ronny S.; McCullough, Stacie A.; Hill, Mitchell J.; Alt, Jacob J.; Skaggs, Jaime; Call, Shawn M.; Bellas, Eric; King, Vicki; Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa. Distributed Ledger System For Carrier Discovery. U.S. Patent Number 10,929,931, filed January 12, 2018, and published online on March 8, 2021. 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=10,929,931.PN.&OS=PN/10,929,931RS=PN/10,929,931

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)