Patent Issued for Methods and systems for transferring call context (USPTO 11770706): United Services Automobile Association

2023 OCT 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Cairns, Michael Justin (Helotes, TX, US), Fiedler, Kevin Kenneth (Boerne, TX, US), Fujimoto, Yuibi (Helotes, TX, US), Harris, John Raymond (San Antonio, TX, US), Leonard, Joshua Samuel (San Antonio, TX, US), Lilley, David Alexander (Schertz, TX, US), Pace, Jr., Robert Bruno (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on November 16, 2021, was published online on September 26, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11770706 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Customers often call into an organization to inquire about a product, service, or status of an account the customer holds with the organization. The call may be answered by a customer service representative or an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to authentication. More specifically, various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and systems for authenticating a user to a call. Further embodiments generally relate to calls, including transferring the context or intent of a call to a user’s device or application.

“When users call an organization on a standard voice line, organizations often have difficulty authenticating (i.e., identifying and verifying) the caller. For example, caller identification (ANI) can easily be spoofed and is thus not a reliable source of identification. Additionally, some callers attempt to bypass registration to be connected straight to a representative, which results in the representative spending valuable time authenticating the caller. Authenticating the caller by asking challenge questions can be a lengthy process and, in some cases, is not a reliable method because much of the information can be found on the Internet. Moreover, depending on the type of transaction or information requested by the caller, additional authentication information may be required or desired.

“Methods and systems disclosed herein allow users to be authenticated in a more secure and more efficient manner. In various embodiments, the user calls into the organization on one channel and can be sent, via one or more different channels, an authentication message that requests authentication credentials. After the authentication credentials from the user are received and verified, the user can be authenticated to the call.

“Organizations allow users to access services and engage in activities through various channels. Examples of channels include modes of communication (e.g., a communications network) for exchanging data between devices. Devices may include, but are not limited to, computing devices, such as tablets, personal computers, and smartphones; point of sale devices; ATMs; connected smart devices, such as refrigerators, watches, and laptops; telephones, such as landline telephones or mobile phones; and face-to-face contact such as interaction between a user and an employee of the organization. Channels may also include software and firmware associated with the devices and communications devices, such as web portals, applications, networks, mobile applications, and instant messaging systems. Channels may also include hardware associated with the computing devices and telephones, such as the network hardware, credit card scanners, and retinal scanners.

“Channels allow the user to engage in activities with an organization during a session. For example, a user may use a web portal or mobile application (i.e., a channel) to engage in activities, such as viewing an account, trading funds, purchasing insurance, or submitting or processing a negotiable instrument. Each channel may accept unique verifying information, and the verifying information may change depending upon the caller and/or the activity requested.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computerized method comprising: placing a call via a first device associated with a caller to a service provider; determining if the first device is a qualified device based at least in part on whether the first device has been registered with the service provider for longer than a predetermined period of time; and in response to the determination of the first device being the unqualified device: sending a request from a third party to a second device associated with the caller, wherein the request includes a link to a login webpage; and receiving an indication that the user has successfully logged into the login webpage, wherein the caller is authenticated to the call when the caller successfully logs into the login webpage.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is sent via text message.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party is an issuer of the first device.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is a request for authentication credentials.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving authentication credentials from the user, wherein the authentication credentials are received from the login webpage.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a login request from the user to login to the login webpage.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is a push notification.

“8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: placing a call via a first device associated with a caller to a service provider; determining if the first device is a qualified device based at least in part on whether the first device has been registered with the service provider for longer than a predetermined period of time; and in response to the determination of the first device being the unqualified device: sending a request from a third party to a second device associated with the caller, wherein the request includes a link to a login webpage; and receiving an indication that the user has successfully logged into the login webpage, wherein the caller is authenticated to the call when the caller successfully logs into the login webpage.

“9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the request is sent via text message.

“10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the third party is an issuer of the first device.

“11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the request is a request for authentication credentials.

“12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, the operations further comprising receiving authentication credentials from the user, wherein the authentication credentials are received from the login webpage.

“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, the operations further comprising receiving a login request from the user to login to the login webpage.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is a push notification.

“15. A system comprising: one or more processors; and a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: placing a call via a first device associated with a caller to a service provider; determining if the first device is a qualified device based at least in part on whether the first device has been registered with the service provider for longer than a predetermined period of time; and in response to the determination of the first device being the unqualified device: sending a request from a third party to a second device associated with the caller, wherein the request includes a link to a login webpage; and receiving an indication that the user has successfully logged into the login webpage, wherein the caller is authenticated to the call when the caller successfully logs into the login webpage.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the request is sent via text message.

“17. The system of claim 15, wherein the third party is an issuer of the first device.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein the request is a request for authentication credentials.

“19. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising receiving authentication credentials from the user, wherein the authentication credentials are received from the login webpage.

“20. The system of claim 15, the operations further comprising receiving a login request from the user to login to the login webpage.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Cairns, Michael Justin. Methods and systems for transferring call context. U.S. Patent Number 11770706, filed November 16, 2021, and published online on September 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11770706)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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