Patent Issued for Fault determination of blockchain subrogation claims (USPTO 11861729): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2024 JAN 23 (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 11861729, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Alt, Jacob J. (Downs, IL, US), Bellas, Eric (Bloomington, IL, US), Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL, US), Graff, Douglas A. (Mountain View, MO, US), King, Vicki (Bloomington, IL, US), Leise, William J. (Normal, IL, US), McCullough, Stacie A. (Bloomington, IL, US), Moore, Eric R. (Heyworth, IL, US), Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL, US).

This patent was filed on October 11, 2022 and was published online on January 2, 2024.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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. For example, 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 include information regarding parties involved in a loss, forensic data regarding the loss, vehicle data regarding a loss, etc. The various parties must 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 must indicate acceptance or approval of damages calculations and a payment amount that is agreed 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. A large volume of data may need to be analyzed and negotiated on between the parties. It is often difficult to collect all relevant data in a secure environment that is trusted by both parties.

“If the parties to the subrogation claim cannot settle the claim themselves, then the dispute may be decided in other ways. For example, the parties may submit the claim to arbitration before an arbitrator. The parties may agree to arbitrate the dispute based upon qualifications of the arbitrator (e.g., membership in a professional arbitration association). An arbitrator may request information from the parties, decide disputes between the parties on issues of damages calculations and damages liability. In some cases, the parties to the subrogation claim may withdraw from arbitration and seek resolution of the subrogation claim in another forum such as in a court of law.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A shared ledger operated by a group of network participants according to a set of consensus rules manages and resolves subrogation claims between a clamant and a defendant with arbitration. Evidence regarding the value of the subrogation claim is sent to the shared ledger by the parties to the subrogation claim such as sending data to a smart contract deployed on the shared ledger. The parties to the subrogation claim or entities that are not parties to the subrogation claim may broadcast data relating to fault to the blockchain. The data relating to fault may be evaluated by the parties or entities acting on the parties’ behalf to determine fault. A fault determination may be broadcast to the blockchain based upon the analysis of the data relating to fault. Once the claim is resolved, arbitrator may release funds on the chain to the prevailing party or may accept confirmation that any payments have been made between the parties off-chain.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of settling a subrogation claim by a shared ledger may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, and/or transceivers: (1) paying a claim to an insured for an insured loss; (2) generating an electronic subrogation claim; (3) deploying the electronic subrogation claim (or a link to, or a hash of the electronic subrogation claim) to a shared ledger, the electronic subrogation claim: (a) identifying a subrogation defendant, (b) including information regarding the insured loss, and/or © including a demand to arbitrate the electronic subrogation claim; (4) broadcasting an update to the electronic subrogation claim deployed to the shared ledger; and/or (5) receiving an electronic or other subrogation claim settlement payment upon resolution of the subrogation claim to facilitate settling subrogation claims. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a validating network node on a shared ledger network may be provided. The node may include (1) a transceiver configured to exchange shared ledger data with peer network nodes, the shared ledger data including subrogation claim transactions including demands for arbitration; (2) a storage media configured to store a copy of the shared ledger; and/or (3) a transaction validator configured to apply a set of consensus rules to shared ledger data received from the peer network nodes, the transaction validator being further configured to append shared ledger data received from peer nodes to the copy of the shared ledger if the shared ledger data satisfies the consensus rules. The node may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of settling a subrogation claim by a shared ledger may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, and/or transceivers: (1) monitoring a blockchain for an indication of a subrogation claim, the subrogation claim identifying: (a) a subrogation claimant, (b) including evidence regarding an insured loss, and/or © including a demand to arbitrate the subrogation claim; (2) determining whether the evidence regarding the insured loss satisfies an acceptance condition; (3) broadcasting to a blockchain network an indication of acceptance of the evidence regarding the insured loss if the evidence regarding the insured loss satisfies the acceptance condition; and/or (4) remitting a payment to the subrogation claimant in settlement of the subrogation claim. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“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.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of settling a subrogation claim by a shared ledger, the method comprising, via one or more processors, servers, and/or associated transceivers: generating a subrogation claim; deploying the subrogation claim to the shared ledger maintained by a plurality of participants in a shared ledger network according to a set of consensus rules, the subrogation claim identifying a subrogation defendant; broadcasting an update to the subrogation claim deployed to the shared ledger, the update including data relating to fault in the subrogation claim, the data including one or more of: biometric data collected from a driver of a vehicle, data from vehicles not involved in a crash giving rise at least in part to the subrogation claim, or road sensor data transmitted from an evidence oracle to the shared ledger, wherein the update further includes a proof-of-identity to cryptographically prove that the update is originated by a participating entity, and wherein the update is appended to the shared ledger in response to the plurality of participants in the shared ledger network determining that the update satisfies the set of consensus rules; and receiving a subrogation claim settlement payment upon resolution of the subrogation claim, wherein the subrogation claim is closed upon receipt of the subrogation claim settlement payment.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim includes telematics data from one or more vehicles involved in a crash, the crash being at least one basis for the subrogation claim.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim includes data from one or more devices having a sensor, the devices not being located on a vehicle.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving data relating to fault in the subrogation claim by inspecting contents of a block in the shared ledger; determining whether the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim weighs in favor of fault of a party to the subrogation claim; and broadcasting another update to the shared ledger, the another update including results of the determining operation.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the determining operation includes determining whether a vehicle violated one or more road laws.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the determining operation includes determining whether a driver of a vehicle was under the influence of an intoxicant.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the determining operation includes determining whether a driver of a vehicle did not focus attention on road conditions.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein to determine whether the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim weighs in favor of fault of a party to the subrogation claim, the instructions cause the one or more processors to determine whether a driver of a vehicle was under the influence of an intoxicant.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein to determine whether the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim weighs in favor of fault of a party to the subrogation claim, the instructions cause the one or more processors to determine whether a driver of a vehicle did not focus attention on road conditions.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the subrogation claim is an electronic subrogation claim.

“11. A computer system of settling a subrogation claim by a shared ledger, the computer system comprising: a network interface; one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions thereon, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: generate a subrogation claim; deploy the subrogation claim to the shared ledger maintained by a plurality of participants in a shared ledger network according to a set of consensus rules, the subrogation claim identifying a subrogation defendant; and broadcast an update to the subrogation claim deployed to the shared ledger, the update including data relating to fault in the subrogation claim, the data including one or more of: biometric data collected from a driver of a vehicle, data from vehicles not involved in a crash giving rise at least in part to the subrogation claim, or road sensor data transmitted from an evidence oracle to the shared ledger, wherein the update further includes a proof-of-identity to cryptographically prove that the update is originated by a participating entity, and wherein the update is appended to the shared ledger in response to the plurality of participants in the shared ledger network determining that the update satisfies the set of consensus rules; and receive a subrogation claim settlement payment upon resolution of the subrogation claim, wherein the subrogation claim is closed upon receipt of the subrogation claim settlement payment.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim includes telematics data from one or more vehicles involved in a crash, the crash being at least one basis for the subrogation claim.

“13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim includes data from one or more devices having a sensor, the devices not being located on a vehicle.

“14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to: receive data relating to fault in the subrogation claim by inspecting contents of a block in the shared ledger; determine whether the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim weighs in favor of fault of a party to the subrogation claim; and broadcast another update to the shared ledger, the another update including results of the determining operation.

“15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein to determine whether the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim weighs in favor of fault of a party to the subrogation claim, the instructions cause the one or more processors to determine whether a vehicle violated one or more road laws.

“16. A computer-implemented method of settling a subrogation claim by a shared ledger, the method comprising, via one or more processors, servers, and/or associated transceivers: monitoring a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants in a blockchain network according to a set of consensus rules for an indication of a subrogation claim, the subrogation claim a) identifying a subrogation claimant, b) including evidence regarding an insured loss and a proof-of-identity to cryptographically prove that the evidence of the insured loss is originated by a participating entity, and c) including data relating to fault in the subrogation claim, the data including one or more of: biometric data collected from a driver of a vehicle, data from vehicles not involved in a crash giving rise at least in part to the subrogation claim, or road sensor data transmitted from an evidence oracle to the shared ledger; determining a party at fault in the subrogation claim based at least in part on the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim; broadcasting to the blockchain network an indication of liability of the party determined to be at fault in the determining operation thereby updating the shared ledger, and wherein the update is appended to the shared ledger in response to the plurality of participants in the shared ledger network determining that the update satisfies the set of consensus rules; and remitting a payment to the subrogation claimant in settlement of the subrogation claim, wherein the subrogation claim is closed after the payment is remitted.

“17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining operation includes determining a fractional amount of damages liability.

“18. The method of claim 16, wherein the data relating to fault in the subrogation claim includes at least one of: data broadcast to the blockchain by a party to the subrogation claim; data broadcast to the blockchain by an entity not a party to the subrogation claim; and/or a request for analysis by the entity not a party to the subrogation claim.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Alt, Jacob J. Fault determination of blockchain subrogation claims. U.S. Patent Number 11861729, filed October 11, 2022, and published online on January 2, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11861729)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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