Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Secure Online Repositories (USPTO 10,289,813)

2019 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Morlen, Randy Ray (San Antonio, TX); Oakes, Charles Lee (Boerne, TX); Burks, Rickey Dale (Boerne, TX), filed on June 13, 2017, was published online on May 27, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,289,813 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Storage of important and/or personal records is often times desirable and needed. Safety deposit boxes, file cabinets, and so forth, have been used in the past to address this need. However, these storage mechanisms, especially in a digital context, fall short of providing centralized, personal, and secure document storage facilities, which result in something more than simple share-drive spaces. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide systems, methods, and other mechanisms for storing various records.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Systems, methods, and other mechanisms are disclosed herein for storing various records. By way of example and not limitation, in one aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter, various keys and various parties can access on-line repositories. In another aspect, these repositories contain a plurality of lockboxes, structured hierarchically and otherwise, providing public and private areas with varying levels of access. Some content of such lockboxes is sharable, while other content is not sharable. These lockboxes can be used to not only store diverse content, ranging from birth certificates, to deeds, and to social security numbers, but they can also be accessed in a variety of ways.

“Again, by way of example and not limitation, keys to lockboxes can be made available by such events as the issuing of death certificates or birth certificates. Alternatively, keys can be issued according to various rules and heuristics stipulated by lockbox users (which may include lockbox owners). In either case, the plurality of lockboxes residing in repositories can be configured to provide centralized storage facilities that are secure and readily accessible from various computing devices.

“It should be noted that this Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A system for providing access control to a secure online repository, comprising: a computer network; at least one database configured to store the secure online repository, the at least one database being connected to the computer network and the secure online repository including a first lockbox and a second lockbox; a computing device connected to the computer network and the database, the computing device comprising at least one processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to: receive, from a user interface of a first client device, a first access key from a first party; receive, from a user interface of a second client device, a second access key from a second party, the second party being different from the first party; simultaneously validate the first access key and the second access key; in response to simultaneously validating both the first and second access keys, provide remote access to the first lockbox to the first party and remote access to the second lockbox to the second party over the computer network, wherein the first lockbox and the second lockbox share content in common that includes information unique to the first party and information unique to the second party; and responsive to the provided remote access, provide, through the computer network, the content in common to the first client device and the second client device, wherein the information unique to the first party is concurrently available on the user interface of the second client device for the duration the first party is remotely accessing the first lockbox and the information unique to the second party is concurrently available on the user interface of the first client device for the duration the second party is remotely accessing the second lockbox.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to provide remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository to the second party using the validated second access key in response to receiving an issuance of a death certificate of an owner of the secure online repository.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to provide remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository to the second party using the validated second access key in response to receiving an issuance of a birth certificate of the first party.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second party is one of (a) a governmental entity, (b) a supplier of the secure online repository, and © a professional individual associated with an owner of the secure online repository.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein a requirement that both the first access key and the second access key need to be simultaneously validated is subject to an overwrite request by at least one party having an interest in the secure online repository.

“6. A computer implemented method for providing a secure online repository executed by at least one processor, the method comprising: receiving, by the at least one processor, from a user interface of a first client device, a first access key from a first party; receiving, by the at least one processor, from a user interface of a second client device, a second access key from a second party, the second party being different from the first party; simultaneously validating, by the at least one processor, the first access key and the second access key; in response to simultaneously validating both the first access key and the second access key, providing remote access to a first lockbox of the secure online repository to the first party and remote access to a second lockbox of the secure online repository to the second party over a computer network, wherein the first lockbox and the second lockbox share content in common, and the content in common includes information unique to the first party and information unique to the second party; and responsive to the provided remote access, providing, through the computer network, the content in common to the first client device and the second client device, wherein the information unique to the first party is concurrently available on the user interface of the second client device for the duration the first party is remotely accessing the first lockbox and the information unique to the second party is concurrently available on the user interface of the first client device for the duration the second party is remotely accessing the second lockbox.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository is provided to the second party in response to receiving an issuance of a death certificate of an owner of the secure online repository.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository is provided to the second party in response to receiving an issuance of a birth certificate of the first party.

“9. The method of claim 6, wherein the second party is one of (a) a governmental entity, (b) a supplier of the secure online repository, and © a professional individual associated with an owner of the secure online repository.

“10. The method of claim 6, wherein a requirement that both the first access key and the second access key need to be simultaneously validated is subject to an overwrite request by at least one party having an interest in the secure online repository.

“11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, operate to cause at least one processor to perform operations for providing access control to a secure online repository that comprises a first lockbox and a second lockbox, the operations comprising: receiving, from a user interface of a first client device, a first access key from a first party; receiving, from a user interface of a second client device, a second access key from a second party, the second party being different from the first party; simultaneously validating the first access key and the second access key; in response to simultaneously validating both the first and second access keys, providing remote access to the first lockbox to the first party and remote access to the second lockbox to the second party over a computer network, wherein the first lockbox and the second lockbox share content in common that includes information unique to the first party and information unique to the second party; and responsive to the provided remote access, providing, through the computer network, the content in common to the first client device and the second client device, wherein the information unique to the first party is concurrently available on the user interface of the second client device for the duration the first party is remotely accessing the first lockbox and the information unique to the second party is concurrently available on the user interface of the first client device for the duration the second party is remotely accessing the second lockbox.

“12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository is provided to the second party in response to receiving an issuance of a death certificate of an owner of the secure online repository.

“13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the remote access to the second lockbox of the secure online repository is provided to the second party in response to receiving an issuance of a birth certificate of the first party.

“14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the second party is one of (a) a governmental entity, (b) a supplier of the secure online repository, and © a professional individual associated with an owner of the secure online repository.

“15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein a requirement that both the first access key and the second access key need to be simultaneously validated is subject to an overwrite request by at least one party having an interest in the secure online repository.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Morlen, Randy Ray; Oakes, Charles Lee; Burks, Rickey Dale. Systems And Methods For Secure Online Repositories. U.S. Patent Number 10,289,813, filed June 13, 2017, and published online on May 27, 2019. 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=10,289,813.PN.&OS=PN/10,289,813RS=PN/10,289,813

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