Patent Issued for Parts valuation and use (USPTO 11270387): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 MAR 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11270387, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Marlow, Clint J. (Barrington Hills, IL, US), Riggio, John A. (Mundelein, IL, US), Trinco, Robert L. (Schaumburg, IL, US).

This patent was filed on October 7, 2020 and was published online on March 8, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Repair of damaged vehicles is a necessary aspect of any insurance company’s business. However, conventional systems are not necessarily efficient, nor do they capitalize on resources available to the insurance company. For instance, if a vehicle is considered a total loss, the car is often sold to a salvage yard who then may sell various parts of the vehicle. In this arrangement, the insurance company may not realize the entire value or potential uses of the usable parts on the total loss vehicle.

“Further, it is often difficult to anticipate when certain parts will be available for use in various repairs and repair shops must often wait to obtain parts needed for a repair.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to systems, methods apparatuses, and computer-readable media for analyzing vehicle accident claim information from a vehicle that is damaged (e.g., a total loss vehicle), as well as historical data, to determine whether one or more parts from the vehicle are available for reuse. In some examples, aspects may also relate to determining whether the parts available for reuse should be stored by the entity using the system (e.g., the insurance company) for future use in the repair of other vehicles, such as other vehicles insured by the insurance company, or should be sold.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive, via a network, information related to at least one vehicle; retrieve, from a database, data regarding a plurality of parts needed for reuse; compare the information received via the network to the data retrieved from the database and identify at least one part of the at least one vehicle that is available for reuse; transmit to a display device, an instruction to remove the at least one part from the at least one vehicle; determine that a likelihood that the at least one part will be reused within a predetermined period of time satisfies a predetermined threshold; determine a storage location corresponding to the at least one part; and output an instruction to store the at least one part at the storage location.

“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to transmit an instruction to the display device to remove the at least one part from the at least one vehicle.

“3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to display, on the display device, an instruction to remove the at least one part from the at least one vehicle.

“4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that cause the apparatus to transmit the instruction to store the at least one part for reuse.

“5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that cause the apparatus to display the instruction to store the at least one part for reuse.

“6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine that the at least one part matches the information received via the network to the data retrieved from the database based on one or more historical data parameters.

“7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the one or more historical data parameters comprise at least one of: a part number, a vehicle make with which the at least one part may be used, a vehicle model with which the at least one part may be used, a total number of vehicles using the at least one part, or a likelihood that the at least one part will be damaged.

“8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data regarding the plurality of parts needed for reuse comprises a replacement request when there is at least a 50% likelihood that the plurality of parts are needed for reuse within a threshold amount of time of the identifying that at least one part of the at least one vehicle is available for reuse.

“9. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive, via a network, information related to at least one vehicle; retrieve, from a database, data regarding a plurality of parts needed for reuse; compare the information received via the network to the data retrieved from the database; identify that at least one part of the at least one vehicle is available for reuse; transmit to a display device, an instruction to remove the at least one part from the at least one vehicle; store information corresponding to the at least one part; output a communication that the at least one part has been added to inventory; receive a request for the at least one part; and reserve, responsive to the request, the at least one part.

“10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to transmit a confirmation message indicating that the at least one part has been reserved.

“11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine that an amount of other vehicles capable of using the at least one part exceeds a threshold amount of vehicles.

“12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the apparatus to store the information comprise computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to store the information responsive to determining that the threshold amount is exceeded.

“13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: output a user interface; receive, via the user interface, a plurality of user inputs; and determine, based on at least one of the plurality of user inputs, the threshold amount.

“14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of parameters including at least one of: a threshold number of vehicles associated with a user of the apparatus, a threshold number of types of vehicles on which the at least one part may be used, a threshold amount of time within which the at least one part will be used, and a threshold percentage that the at least one part will be reused.

“15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of user inputs corresponds to one of the plurality of parameters.

“16. A method comprising: receive, by the one or more processors, via a network, information related to at least one vehicle; retrieve, by the one or more processors, from a database, data regarding a plurality of parts needed for reuse; compare, by the one or more processors, the information received via the network to the data retrieved from the database; determining, by the one or more processors, that a part of the at least one vehicle is available for reuse; transmitting, by the one or more processors to a display device, an instruction, received from the one or more processors, to remove the part from the at least one vehicle; receiving, by the one or more processors, information associated with the part; determining, by the one or more processors, based on the received information, an availability date for the part; storing, by the one or more processors, the received information and the availability date; transmitting, by the one or more processors, a message comprising the received information and the availability date; receiving, by the one or more processors, a request for the part; reserving, by the one or more processors, based on the request, the part, wherein the reserving the part comprises identifying, by the one or more processors, the part as claimed and indicating that the part should be transferred; and transmitting, by the one or more processors, after the reserving, a second message comprising a confirmation of the reserving.

“17. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information, by the one or more processors, comprises at least one of: a part number, manufacturer information, and a status of the part.

“18. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information, by the one or more processors, comprises at least one of: an indication of whether the part has been removed from the at least one vehicle, an indication of where the part is stored, an indication of when the part will be removed from the at least one vehicle, an indication of whether the part is being stored, and an indication of whether the part is being sold.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the determining the availability date, by the one or more processors, comprises analyzing, via parts matching algorithms, the received information to determine the availability date, and wherein the second message comprises an indication of the availability date.

“20. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining that the part is available for reuse, by the one or more processors, comprises determining, via part matching algorithms, that the part is available for reuse.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Marlow, Clint J. Parts valuation and use. U.S. Patent Number 11270387, filed October 7, 2020, and published online on March 8, 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=11270387.PN.&OS=PN/11270387RS=PN/11270387

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