Patent Issued for Systems and methods for trigger based synchronized updates in a distributed records environment (USPTO 11522677): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2022 DEC 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States) has been issued patent number 11522677, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are O’Malley, Abigail Jennings (Brighton, MA, US), Rutley, Jennifer (Springfield, MA, US).

This patent was filed on May 21, 2020 and was published online on December 6, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Diverse types of computing systems (e.g. servers) and networks are maintained by different entities (or parties) for data storage and communication between various data storage hardware. For example, a first entity may maintain a single database; a second entity may maintain multiple databases; or the first and second entities may share a common database. One or more servers may push updates to various database records within the databases such that all the databases remain up to date. A system of real time updates is crucial to the databases and servers implementing real time transaction processing or any other type of secured process.

“One of the challenges in maintaining multiple databases is data integrity and confidentiality. The integrity of the database and the updates being pushed within the network must not be compromised. Furthermore, the confidentiality of the database and updates should not be beached. This is especially challenging in a “mixed” update environment, wherein a portion of the update is confidential and another portion is not. The challenge is compounded when computing systems (for example, servers) maintained by multiple entities are generating and pushing the updates to the databases. In a multi-entity environment wherein various computing systems generates and push updates to various database, each computing system generating and pushing the update has to be authenticated. That is, the system has to ensure that a malicious party is not posing as the computing system to generate and push unauthorized updates.

“Furthermore, within a real time processing system, one or more computing systems have to automatically and intelligently generate updates to one or more databases in response to one or more event. As indicated before, the system has ensure the integrity of the computing systems generating the updates, the security and integrity of the updates themselves, and the security and integrity of the databases receiving the updates.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “What is therefore needed are computer systems and methods that generate and push updates to database records in one or more databases in response to one or more trigger conditions while maintaining the security and integrity of the updates and the databases.

“In one embodiment, computerized method comprises: in response to receiving a blockchain by a blockchain node via a communications network including information associated with an event, parsing, by a blockchain parsing engine being executed by the blockchain node, the information associated with the event to identify a status state of an item related to the event; determining, by an event tracking engine being executed by the blockchain node, from the parsed information that the status state of the item has transitioned from a first state to a second state; responsive to the event tracking engine being executed by the blockchain node determining that a qualifying state is satisfied by the transitioned status state of the item: identifying, by the blockchain node, based upon the information associated with the event, an electronic certificate associated with the item and stored by the blockchain, wherein the electronic certificate verifies the status state of the item; parsing, by the blockchain parsing engine being executed by the blockchain node, the electronic certificate to retrieve a unique identifier of a third-party event verifying computing system; and executing, by the blockchain node, a smart code inclusive of initiating communications between a first party and a second party at an address of the second party in response to authenticating the third-party event verifying computing system based on the retrieved unique identifier.

“In another embodiment, a computer system comprises: a blockchain node comprising: a blockchain engine configured to receive a blockchain that includes information associated with an event; a blockchain parsing engine configured to identify a status state of an item related to the event based upon paring the information associated with the event; an event tracking engine configured to determine from the parsed information that the status state of the item has transitioned from a first state to a second state; and wherein responsive to the event tracking engine determining that a qualifying state is satisfied by the transitioned status state of the item: the blockchain node is configured to identify, based upon the information associated with the event, an electronic certificate associated with the item and stored by the blockchain, wherein the electronic certificate verifies the status state of the item, the blockchain parsing engine is further configured to parse the electronic certificate to retrieve a unique identifier of a third-party event verifying computing system, the blockchain node is further configured to execute a smart code inclusive of initiating communications between a first party and a second party at an address of the second party in response to authenticating the third-party event verifying computing system based on the retrieved unique identifier.

“Numerous other aspects, features and benefits of the present disclosure may be made apparent from the following detailed description taken together with the drawing figures.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computerized method for a blockchain having a plurality of nodes, the computerized method comprising: parsing, by at least one node of the plurality of nodes, data associated with an event to identify a status of the event, wherein the data associated with the event is stored on data repositories accessible by one or more nodes of the blockchain; determining, by the at least one node of the plurality of nodes, from the parsed data that the status of event has transitioned from a first state to a second state, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes identifies an electronic certificate confirming a transition of the event from the first state to the second state; parsing, by at the least one node of the plurality of nodes, the electronic certificate to retrieve a unique identifier of an event-verifying computing system; and in response to authenticating the event-verifying computing system based on the retrieved unique identifier: initiating, by the at least one node of the plurality of nodes, an electronic communication session with a computing device associated with the event.

“2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes corresponds to a same node of the blockchain.

“3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic certificate is stored on a data repository accessible to the at least one node of the plurality of nodes.

“4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic certificate is an image of the electronic certificate.

“5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: storing, by the at least one node of the plurality of nodes, the electronic certificate on the blockchain.

“6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the event corresponds to death of a user associated with the blockchain.

“7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes executes an image matching protocol to determine whether an image of the electronic certificate at least partially matches one or more locally stored images to authenticate the electronic certificate.

“8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: initiating, by the at least one node of the plurality of nodes, a payment to an account associated with the event.

“9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communication session is between a computing device of an insurance provider and the computing device associated with the event.

“10. The method of according to claim 1, further comprising: automatically updating, by the at least one node of the plurality of nodes, the blockchain with the data associated with the event.

“11. A system comprising: a plurality of nodes connected via a blockchain, each node having a processor configured to: parse data associated with an event to identify a status of the event, wherein the data associated with the event is stored on data repositories accessible by one or more nodes of the blockchain; determine from the parsed data that the status of event has transitioned from a first state to a second state, wherein at least one node of the plurality of nodes identifies an electronic certificate confirming a transition of the event from the first state to the second state; parse the electronic certificate to retrieve a unique identifier of an event-verifying computing system; and in response to authenticating the event-verifying computing system based on the retrieved unique identifier, initiate an electronic communication session with a computing device associated with the event.

“12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes corresponds to a same node of the blockchain.

“13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the electronic certificate is stored on a data repository accessible to the at least one node of the blockchain.

“14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the electronic certificate is an image of the electronic certificate.

“15. The system according to claim 11, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes is further configured to: store the electronic certificate on the blockchain.

“16. The system according to claim 11, wherein the event corresponds to death of a user.

“17. The system according to claim 11, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes executes an image matching protocol to determine whether an image of the electronic certificate at least partially matches one or more locally stored images to authenticate the electronic certificate.

“18. The system according to claim 11, wherein the at least one node of the plurality of nodes is further configured to: initiate a payment to an account associated with the event.

“19. The system according to claim 11, wherein the communication session is between a computing device of an insurance provider and the computing device associated with the event.

“20. The system of according to claim 11, wherein each node is further configured to: automatically update the blockchain with the data associated with the event.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: O’Malley, Abigail Jennings. Systems and methods for trigger based synchronized updates in a distributed records environment. U.S. Patent Number 11522677, filed May 21, 2020, and published online on December 6, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11522677)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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