Patent Issued for Method and system for integrating online sales of consumer products with the sale of corresponding insurance (USPTO 11556996): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 FEB 07 (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 11556996, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Davis, Timothy Joel (Warrenville, IL, US), Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL, US).

This patent was filed on November 1, 2019 and was published online on January 17, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Today, customers purchase a variety of products through online retailers. For example, a customer may purchase vehicles, homes, jewelry, electronics, machinery, etc., online. Insurance for these products may also be purchased online, but customers purchase insurance policies separately from the product for which they provide coverage. For example, a customer may purchase a car online through a dealership website. However, the customer must purchase insurance coverage for the car through an additional service, resulting in a time consuming and inconvenient process, particularly in situations where purchasing insurance for the product is mandatory (e.g., auto insurance in some states).”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to integrating the online sale of an insurance policy with the online sale of an insurable product. When a customer purchases an insurable product online, an insurance provider may receive information about the customer via a communication network. The insurance provider may analyze this information to determine whether the customer may be eligible to purchase an insurance policy providing coverage for the insurable product. If the insurance provider determines that the customer is eligible, an offer to purchase the insurance policy may be transmitted to the customer via the communication network. Moreover, the insurance provider may receive and analyze additional customer information to determine an appropriate insurance premium for the policy. The insurance premium amount may also be transmitted to the customer via the communication network, and the customer may purchase the insurance policy along with the insurable product through one service.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of integrating an online insurance purchase with an online purchase of an insurable product may be provided. The method may include: (1) obtaining (via one or more processors, and/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) an indication of an online selection of an insurable product by a customer, wherein the insurable product may be selected via an online retailer; (2) receiving (via the one or more processors, and/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) from the online retailer, user history information corresponding to the customer; and/or (3) determining (via the one or more processors) whether the customer is eligible for an online insurance purchase which may provide coverage for the insurable product according to a set of eligibility rules, based upon the user history information corresponding to the customer. When the customer is eligible for the online insurance purchase, the method may include: (4) receiving (via the one or more processors, and/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) customer insurance risk information for the customer; (5) determining (via the one or more processors) a level of risk for insuring the customer based upon the customer insurance risk information; (6) determining (via the one or more processors) an insurance quote based upon the level of risk for insuring the customer; and/or (7) transmitting (via the one or more processors, and/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) an indication of a temporary or binding offer (such as an actionable offer or quote for insurance) to provide insurance for the insurable product which is to be displayed in a first order review page (and/or on a display or display screen), wherein the first order review page may include an indication of the insurable product. Upon receiving a request from the customer to purchase insurance, the method may include: (8) transmitting (via the one or more processors, and/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) the insurance quote to be displayed in a second order review page (and/or on the display or display screen) to facilitate providing immediately binding insurance coverage for the insurable product at the time of purchase. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternative actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a system for integrating an online insurance purchase with an online purchase of an insurable product may be provided. The system may include a communication network, one or more processors communicatively coupled to the communication network and/or a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing thereon instructions. When executed by the one or more processors, the instructions may cause the system to: (1) receive, from an online retailer and via the communication network, an indication of an online selection of an insurable product by a customer, wherein the insurable product may be selected via the online retailer; and/or (2) receive, from the online retailer, user history information corresponding to the customer. The instructions may further cause the system to: (3) determine whether the customer may be eligible for an online insurance purchase which provides coverage for the insurable product according to a set of eligibility rules, based upon the user history information corresponding to the customer; and/or when the customer is eligible for the online insurance purchase, the instructions may cause the system to: (4) receive customer insurance risk information for the customer; (5) determine a level of risk for insuring the customer based upon the customer insurance risk information; (6) determine an insurance quote based upon the level of risk for insuring the customer; and/or (7) transmit, via the communication network, an indication of an offer (such as a binding or actionable offer) to provide insurance for the insurable product to be displayed in a first order review page on a web-enabled device of the customer, wherein the first order review page may include an indication of the insurable product. Upon receiving a request from the customer to purchase the insurance, the instructions may cause the system to: (8) transmit, via the communication network, the insurance quote to be displayed in a second order review page on the web-enabled device to facilitate providing immediately binding insurance coverage for the insurable product at the time of purchase. The system may include additional, fewer, or alternate components and/or functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, 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 integrating an online purchase of insurance with an online purchase of a retail product, the method executed by one or more processors of an online retailer server programmed to perform the method, the method comprising: transmitting, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server to a web browser of a client device of a customer, a first online retailer web page including one or more display elements associated with the retail product; receiving, at the one or more processors of the online retailer server from the web browser of the client device, an indication of an online selection of the retail product by a customer via a first user control of the first online retailer web page; transmitting, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server, the indication of the online selection of the retail product to an insurance provider server; receiving, from the insurance provider server at the one or more processors of the online retailer server, insurance coverage information for insuring the retail product including an insurance quote; transmitting, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server to the web browser of the client device, an insurance coverage selection web page including one or more types of insurance coverage provided corresponding to the insurance quote; receiving, at the one or more processors of the online retailer server from the web browser of the client device, a selection of at least one of the one more types of insurance coverage; generating and transmitting, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server to the web browser of the client device, a second online retailer web page that displays (A) the insurance coverage information from the insurance provider server for the selected at least one type of insurance coverage and (B) at least one of the display elements from the first online retailer web page indicating information for the retail product; and receiving, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server from the web browser of the client device, payment information from the customer client device for purchasing the retail product and the selected at least one type of insurance coverage in a single payment that corresponds to an overall purchase price including an aggregation of the insurance quote and a purchase price for the retail product.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the insurance provider server determines whether the customer is eligible to purchase the insurance according to whether user history information of the customer matches a set of eligibility rules.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein user history information includes at least one of: a number of transactions completed by the customer via the online retailer, a business approval rating, financial account information, employment history, or a credit rating; and wherein the set of eligibility rules includes at least one of: a predetermined threshold number of transactions made by the customer through the online retailer, a predetermined threshold approval rating for the customer, or a predetermined threshold credit rating for the customer.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising receiving customer insurance risk information for the customer.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the one or more processors, an indication of a type of the retail product; and receiving, at the one or more processors, product insurance information for the retail product, wherein the insurance provider server determines the insurance quote based upon a level of risk for insuring the customer that is based upon at least one of: the type of the retail product, or the product insurance risk information for the retail product.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the type of the retail product includes at least one of: an automobile, a boat, a snowmobile, a motorcycle, real estate property, or a personal article.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the retail product is an automobile and wherein the product insurance risk information for the retail product includes at least one of: a vehicle identification number (VIN), vehicle purchase history for the automobile, a number of safety features in the automobile, or an indication of one or more antitheft devices in the automobile.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising: transmitting, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server, an insurance application web page including one or more user controls for entering customer insurance risk information; and receiving, by the one or more processors of the online retailer server, customer insurance risk information from the customer via the insurance application web page.

“9. A computer system for integrating an online purchase of insurance with an online purchase of a retail product, the system comprising: a communication network; one or more processors of an online retailer server communicatively coupled to the communication network; and a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors of the online retailer server and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: transmit to a web browser of a client device of a customer, a first online retailer web page including one or more display elements associated with the retail product, receive, from the web browser of the client device, an indication of an online selection of the retail product by a customer via a first user control of the first online retailer web page, transmit the indication of the online selection of the retail product to an insurance provider server, receive, from the insurance provider server, insurance coverage information for insuring the retail product including an insurance quote, transmit, to the web browser of the client device, an insurance coverage selection web page including one or more types of insurance coverage provided corresponding to the insurance quote, receive, from the web browser of the client device, a selection of at least one of the one more types of insurance coverage, generate and transmit, to the web browser of the client device, a second online retailer web page that displays (A) the insurance coverage information from the insurance provider server for the selected at least one type of insurance coverage and (B) at least one of the display elements from the first online retailer web page indicating information for the retail product, and receive, from the web browser of the client device, payment information from the customer client device for purchasing the retail product and the selected at least one type of insurance coverage in a single payment that corresponds to an overall purchase price including an aggregation of the insurance quote and a purchase price for the retail product.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the insurance provider server determines whether the customer is eligible to purchase the insurance according to whether user history information of the customer matches a set of eligibility rules.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein user history information includes at least one of: a number of transactions completed by the customer via the online retailer, a business approval rating, financial account information, employment history, or a credit rating; and wherein the set of eligibility rules includes at least one of: a predetermined threshold number of transactions made by the customer through the online retailer, a predetermined threshold approval rating for the customer, or a predetermined threshold credit rating for the customer.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions cause the system to automatically obtain the customer insurance risk information from the online retailer or a third party.

“13. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the system to: receive an indication of a type of the retail product, and receive product insurance information for the retail product, wherein the insurance provider server determines the insurance quote based upon a level of risk for insuring the customer that is based upon at least one of: the type of the retail product, or product insurance risk information for the retail product.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the type of the retail product includes at least one of: an automobile, a boat, a snowmobile, a motorcycle, real estate property, or a personal article.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the retail product is an automobile and wherein product insurance risk information for the retail product includes at least one of: a vehicle identification number (VIN), vehicle purchase history for the automobile, a number of safety features in the automobile, or an indication of one or more antitheft devices in the automobile.

“16. The system of claim 9, the instructions cause the system to: transmit an insurance application web page including one or more user controls for entering customer insurance risk information; and receive customer insurance risk information from the customer via the insurance application web page.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Davis, Timothy Joel. Method and system for integrating online sales of consumer products with the sale of corresponding insurance. U.S. Patent Number 11556996, filed November 1, 2019, and published online on January 17, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11556996)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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