Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Tracking, Reporting, Submitting And Completing Information Forms And Reports (USPTO 10,635,692)

2020 MAY 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Eigner, Linda (La Jolla, CA); Eigner, William (La Jolla, CA); Tobias, Eric (La Jolla, CA); Kahle, Charles (Escondido, CA); Iasi, Anthony F. (San Diego, CA), filed on October 23, 2013, was published online on May 11, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,635,692 is Ubiq Security Inc. (San Diego, California, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Various embodiments described herein relate generally to the field of electronic management of information, and more particularly to tracking user information in accordance with various templates that are based on forms or reporting requirements.

“The vision of a paperless modern society is quickly becoming a reality, as more and more communications, services and transactions take place digitally across networks such as the Internet. The need for paper copies of correspondence, financial documents, receipts, contracts and other legal instruments is dwindling as electronic methods for securely transmitting, updating and accessing these documents increases. In addition to the electronic transmission and access to documents and correspondence, the process of electronically submitting information is also commonplace, such as with online shopping or applications for loans, credit cards, health insurance, college or job applications, etc.

“However, much of the information required in these forms is common to other forms, and yet users manually repeat populating the form inputs with the same information over and over again. The ability to collect, organize, update, utilize and reapply the input information required in these electronic documents, forms and applications remains highly difficult. While some applications have been developed to store certain basic information about a user--such as the user’s name, address and financial information--the ability to organize, access and apply this stored information for additional online activities remains very limited, especially when detailed input information and/or computations are required to complete forms such as college applications and family law declarations.

“There are several programs or applications that allow a user to track financial information, budget, forecast, balance spending accounts, etc. While these tools can save time and provide effective tools for budgeting etc., they do not address the numerous circumstances in which a user is required to provide personal information, financial information, forecasts, categorized expenditures, etc., in a specific format or in accordance with specific forms, etc.

“For example, when someone gets divorced, they must provide the court with detailed personal and financial information, both of past records as well as projected needs. This information has to be provided in a very specific state-mandated format using a specific form and it must be updated and submitted to the court at various points during the divorce process, which may last over a long period of time. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates one page of an Income and Expense Declaration that both petitioner and respondent must fill out in a California divorce proceeding. The amount and complexity of the information needed for a form such as this typically requires the person completing the form--such as the party to the divorce or an attorney--to spend a significant amount of time obtaining all of the needed information and even performing calculations of information to obtain the desired values. As another example, when a user wishes to get a loan, such as a car loan or mortgage, the organization providing the loan will often require the user to provide and update certain financial records and information organized in a certain format.

“Even well-organized, financially savvy users using currently available personal financial software tools find completing and updating these forms to be burdensome, time-consuming, confusing, and susceptible to mistake. The applicable forms and other applicable items require much more than basic financial information. Additionally, there is a significant need to accurately complete these forms, as the forms can obviously have a significant impact on whether the applicant qualifies for financial aid, a loan, etc., or receives a favorable outcome in a divorce or other legal proceeding.

“These same challenges apply to other critical life events, such as applying to, and/or paying for college. The college application process is a high anxiety time for students and very often, their parents. There is a lot of detailed information required to complete college and financial aid applications, including but not limited to essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation, activities, photos, etc. Also, college applications and financial aid opportunities have many different deadlines. It is very difficult to stay organized and keep on top of all the information, deadlines and applications submitted.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Disclosed herein are systems and methods for including templates in an information management tool that are designed to track and timely and accurately report certain information in accordance with the requirements of a specific process, form or other requirement. The systems and methods provide for collecting, classifying, organizing, updating and transmitting information for completion of electronic forms while using a computing device, such as a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone or other portable electronic device. Information is obtained from one or more sources through electronic means, and the information is then organized and securely stored in a database using field mapping and other techniques to classify the information into specific categories. The information that is collected and organized may include (but is not limited to) identification and contact information, financial information, health information, education and career information, family information, business information, lifestyle information, and historical information for any of the listed categories. The organized information may then be accessed by the user to automatically and instantaneously populate or supplement the input fields of an electronic document, form or web-based application without requiring the user to manually enter the information. The system automatically detects and stores updates to the information and builds a database of forms and electronic documents for future use. The system is also capable of instantaneously collecting information from user-completed electronic form input fields; classifying, organizing and mapping that information automatically back to the user’s information database for subsequent use on other forms, or later on the same form repeated. The information flows in both directions: from the database to forms and from forms to the database.

“In one aspect of the invention, a system for compiling and populating information onto electronic forms or databases, comprises: a communications interface which collects information of a user from at least one information source; a template creation unit which organizes the collected information into a template in accordance with the requirements of a form or database; and a program unit configured to track and update the information of the user via the communications interface, organize the information of the user in accordance with the template and create a report that displays the information in accordance with the requirements of a form or database.

“In a further aspect of the invention, a method of compiling and populating information onto electronic forms or databases, comprises the steps of: collecting information of a user from at least one information source; organizing the collected information into a template in accordance with the requirements of a form or database; tracking and updating the information of the user via the communications interface; organizing the information of the user in accordance with the template; and creating a report that displays the information in accordance with the requirements of a form or database.

“Other features and advantages should become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A system for compiling and populating information, comprising: a non-transitory computer readable medium for storing computer executable instructions; and a processor communicatively coupled with the non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to execute the instructions stored therein to perform operations comprising: storing information associated with a first user in a user profile, wherein the information associated with the first user includes a plurality of fields, a plurality of field names, and a plurality of values previously gathered from a plurality of sources, each of the plurality of fields comprising a field name of the plurality of field names associated with a value of the plurality of values; collecting information associated with the first user from a first source from a first web server, wherein the information collected from the first source includes a first field comprising a first field name and a first value; determining a correspondence between the first field and a second field associated with a second value included in the plurality of fields; storing, in the user profile, the first field, the correspondence between the first field and the second field in the user profile, and the second value in association with the second field; identifying a third field associated with the first user from a second source from a second web server based at least in part on a correspondence between the third field and at least one of the first field and the second field; storing, in the user profile, the third field and the correspondence between the third field and the at least one of the first and second fields in the user profile; populating the third field with a third value corresponding to at least one of the first value and the second value and storing, in the user profile, the third value in association with the third field; monitoring activity of the user at the plurality of sources to obtain inputted information from the user; detecting a change to the first value when the user inputs a new value into the first field that is different than the first value; and automatically, in response to the detected change: locating, in the user profile, the second field and the third field based on the correspondence, stored in the user profile, between the first field and the second and third fields, and updating at least one of the second and third values, stored in the user profile in association with the respective second field and third field, with the new value.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source comprises a data store associated with one or more of a bank, a lender, a court, a foundation, a school, a college, a government agency, a hospital, and a medical group.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source comprises an electronic form that is one or more of an academic form, a financial form, a legal form, a personal information form, and a business form.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the detected change comprises an input of a value into the first field that is different from the first value.

“5. A method of compiling and populating information, comprising: storing information associated with a first user in a user profile, wherein the information associated with the first user includes a plurality of fields, a plurality of field names, and a plurality of values previously gathered from a plurality of sources, each of the plurality of fields comprising a field name of the plurality of field names associated with a value of the plurality of values; collecting information associated with the first user from a first source from a first web server, wherein the information collected from the first source includes a first field comprising a first field name and a first value; determining a correspondence between the first field and a second field associated with a second value included in the plurality of fields; storing, in the user profile, the first field, the correspondence between the first field and the second field in the user profile, and the second value in association with the second field; identifying a third field associated with the first user from a second source from a second web server based at least in part on a correspondence between the third field and at least one of the first field and the second field; storing, in the user profile, the third field and the correspondence between the third field and the at least one of the first and second fields in the user profile; populating the third field with a third value corresponding to at least one of the first value and the second value and storing, in the user profile, the third value in association with the third field; monitoring activity of the user at the plurality of sources to obtain inputted information from the user; detecting a change to the first value when the user inputs a new value into the first field that is different than the first value; and automatically, in response to the detected change: locating, in the user profile, the second field and the third field based on the correspondence, stored in the user profile, between the first field and the second and third fields, and updating at least one of the second and third values, stored in the user profile in association with the respective second and third fields, with the new value.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source comprises a data store associated with one or more of a bank, a lender, a court, a foundation, a school, a college, a government agency, a hospital, and a medical group.

“7. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first source and the second source comprises an electronic form that is one or more of an academic form, a financial form, a legal form, a personal information form, and a business form.

“8. The method of claim 5, wherein the detected change comprises an input of a value into the first field that is different from the first value.

“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the correspondence between the first field and the second field comprises that the first field and the second field are associated with a same or similar field name.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first value and the second value comprises different values.

“11. The system of claim 1, wherein the correspondence between the first field and the second field comprises that the first value and the second value are the same value.

“12. The method of claim 5, wherein the correspondence between the first field and the second field comprises that the first field and the second field are associated with a same or similar field name.

“13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first value and the second value comprises different values.

“14. The method of claim 5, wherein the correspondence between the first field and the second field comprises that the first value and the second value are the same value.

“15. The system of claim 1, wherein populating the third field comprises deriving the third value from at least one of the first value and the second value and updating the third value comprises deriving the third value using the new value of the first field, wherein the third value is different than the at least one first value and second value.

“16. The system of claim 1, wherein the third value is derived based on aggregating at least the first value and the second value.

“17. The system of claim 1, wherein the first source is a first electronic form and the information collected from the first source comprises a first document identifier of the first electronic form, wherein the second field is associated with a second document identifier of a second electronic form and the third field is associated with a third document identifier of a third electronic form, wherein detecting the change of the first value comprises the new value input into the first field of the first electronic form, wherein the second and third values associated with the second and third document identifiers, respectively, are updated based on the detected change.

“18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to update a form completion indicator of at least one of the second electronic form and the third electronic form based, in part, on the detected change.

“19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to reorganize and format at least one of the second field and third field based, in part, on requirements of the second and third electronic forms, respectively.

“20. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of storage locations, and the processor is further configured to: dissociate each value of the plurality of values from other values of the plurality of values, individually encrypt each value of the plurality of values using a separate encryption key for each of the values, and distribute each of the plurality of individually encrypted values among the plurality of storage locations.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Eigner, Linda; Eigner, William; Tobias, Eric; Kahle, Charles; Iasi, Anthony F. Systems And Methods For Tracking, Reporting, Submitting And Completing Information Forms And Reports. U.S. Patent Number 10,635,692, filed October 23, 2013, and published online on May 11, 2020. 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=10,635,692.PN.&OS=PN/10,635,692RS=PN/10,635,692

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