Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Evidence Oracles”, for Approval (USPTO 20240095848): Patent Application

2024 APR 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL, US); Clayton, Wendy H. (Franklin, TN, US); Flesher, Kim E. (Normal, IL, US); Graff, Douglas A. (Mountain View, MO, US); Leise, William J. (Normal, IL, US); Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL, US); McCoy, Anthony (Normal, IL, US); McCullough, Stacie A. (Bloomington, IL, US); Runge, Travis Charles (Heyworth, IL, US); Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL, US), filed on November 29, 2023, was made available online on March 21, 2024.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The insurance claim process may involve a tremendous number of communications and interactions between parties involved in the process. Potential parties to the claim process may be insurance companies, repair shops, lawyers, arbitrators, government agencies, hospitals, drivers, and collection/collections agency. Sometimes the costs of repairs may be disputed and parties may pursue subrogation for particular charges. As an example, when an insured person suffers a covered loss, an insurer may pay costs to the insured person and pursue subrogation from another party involved in the loss. If an insured vehicle is involved in a collision and suffers a loss, the insurer may compensate the vehicle owner according to an insurance agreement. If, for example, the vehicle owner was not at fault in the collision, the insurer may pursue damages from another party, such as the insurer of the party who was at fault in the collision. An insurance agreement may include an obligation of an insured to assign the insured’s claim against a party at fault to the insurer, who may then collect on the claim on the insured’s behalf.

“Settling a subrogation payment may be a lengthy, complicated process. The various parties (e.g., parties at fault in a vehicle collision, owners of the vehicles, insurers, etc.) may need to exchange information relating to the collision to determine which party was at fault. Sources of information relevant to a fault information and/or subrogation payment may include information regarding parties involved in a loss, forensic data regarding the loss, vehicle data regarding a loss, etc. The various parties may verify and share information from a variety of sources, including information held by parties involved in a loss and their insurers, and information obtained from third parties (e.g., governmental entities, independent contractors, etc.).

“The parties to a subrogation payment (e.g., insurers) may make proposals to one another to settle the subrogation claim. A proposal may include an accounting of damages, such as the costs to a vehicle owner whose vehicle was damaged. If an insured person suffered an injury in a collision, the injured person’s health care costs may be included in the accounting of damages. One or both of the parties to a subrogation claim may rely on independent third parties to assess costs, such as a repair cost estimate by an authorized automotive repair services provider for damage incurred in a collision. To settle the subrogation claim, the parties may indicate acceptance or approval of damages calculations and a payment amount that is agreed between the parties to settle the claim. Parties may rely on a third-party intermediary to handle subrogation negotiations and resolution (e.g., validate information relating to a loss and facilitating communications between the insurers) at added expense.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Systems and methods are disclosed for utilizing a distributed ledger, or blockchain, to manage an insurance claim process, in particular, a subrogation claim process. The systems and methods disclose using evidence oracles for inputting information into the blockchain, utilizing machine learning to suggest amounts for the subrogation process, a line item dispute mechanism, and/or creating/managing a distributed ledger in response to a vehicle being in an collision. The methods and systems may make use of secure transactions and smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

“The present embodiments further relate to insurance and handling insurance claims. Sensor, image, or other data may be collected from various sources, such as mobile devices, one or more vehicles (such as smart or autonomous vehicles), smart infrastructure, satellites, drones, and/or smart or interconnected homes. The data collected may be analyzed by artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms to identify whether a vehicle collision occurred; determine a percentage of fault (for the drivers or autonomous vehicles); determine the veracity of an insurance claim or identify potential fraud or buildup; facilitate subrogation or arbitration processes; determine and assign liability to vehicle manufacturers or drivers; create new blockchains and/or individual blocks for blockchains associated with a particular insurance claim, individual, or vehicle; provide payments or e-payments among parties; and/or facilitate other functionality discussed herein.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for providing data relevant to collision s and subrogation claims by interacting with a distributed ledger maintained by a plurality of participants may be provided. The method may include, via one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers: (1) receiving, at one or more processors, recorded data from one or more connected devices at a geographic location; (2) analyzing, at the one or more processors, the recorded data, wherein analyzing the recorded data may include determining that an collision has occurred involving one or more vehicles; (3) generating, at the one or more processors, a transaction including the data indicative of the collision based upon the analysis; and/or (4) transmitting, at the one or more processors, the transaction to at least one other participant in the distributed ledger network. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for providing data relevant to collisions and subrogation claims by interacting with a distributed ledger maintained by a plurality of participants may be provided. The method may include, via one or more local or remote processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers: (1) receiving, at one or more processors, a request for recorded data from at least one other participant in the distributed ledger network; (2) verifying, at the one or more processors, an access level for the at least one other participant; (3) analyzing, at the one or more processors, the request for recorded data, wherein analyzing may include determining data relevant to the request; (4) generating, at the one or more processors, a transaction including the data relevant to the request; and/or (5) transmitting, at the one or more processors, the transaction to the at least one other participant in the distributed ledger network. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In yet another aspect, a computer system configured to handle or process an insurance claim via a shared ledger may be provided. The system may include one or more processors, servers, sensors, and/or associated transceivers configured to: (1) receive recorded data from one or more connected devices at a geographic location; (2) analyze the recorded data, wherein analyzing the recorded data may include determining that an collision has occurred involving one or more vehicles; (3) generate a transaction including the data indicative of the collision based upon the analysis; and/or (4) transmit the transaction to at least one other participant in the distributed ledger network. The system may include additional, less, or alternate components and actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“The methods may be implemented via computer systems, and may include additional, less, or alternate actions or functionality. Systems or computer-readable media storing instructions for implementing all or part of the method described above may also be provided in some aspects. Systems for implementing such methods may include one or more of the following: a special-purpose computing device, a personal electronic device, a mobile device, a wearable device, a processing unit of a vehicle, a remote server, one or more sensors, one or more communication modules configured to communicate wirelessly via radio links, radio frequency links, and/or wireless communication channels, and/or one or more program memories coupled to one or more processors of the personal electronic device, processing unit of the vehicle, or remote server. Such program memories may store instructions to cause the one or more processors to implement part or all of the method described above. Additional or alternative features described herein below may be included in some aspects.

“This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the Detailed Descriptions. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following description of the preferred aspects, which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present aspects may be capable of other and different aspects, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

“The Figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for interacting with a distributed ledger maintained by a plurality of participants, the method comprising: identifying, at one or more processors, a transaction related to a subrogation claim; analyzing, at the one or more processors, the transaction related to the subrogation claim; generating, at the one or more processors, a recommended subrogation resolution to the subrogation claim; transmitting, at the one or more processors, a transaction including the recommended subrogation resolution to a smart contract stored on the distributed ledger; and identifying a subrogation claimant with a first cryptographic public key, and identifying a subrogation defendant with a second cryptographic public key; and, subsequently, sending data including a message signed by private keys corresponding to the first and second public keys identifying the subrogation claimant and the subrogation defendant in the smart contract.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring, at the one or more processors, a smart contract stored at an address on the distributed ledger.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying a transaction related to a subrogation claim further comprises: identifying, at the one or more processors, a subrogation ID in a transaction; and validating, at the one or more processors, the subrogation ID.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the transaction related to the subrogation claim further comprises: analyzing, at the one or more processors, damages data contained in the transaction; and analyzing, at the one or more processors, services rendered data contained in the transaction.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a recommended subrogation resolution further comprises: executing, at the one or more processors, a machine learning algorithm using damages data and services rendered data included in the transaction.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a recommended subrogation resolution further comprises: comparing, at the one or more processors, damages data and services rendered data to a historical dataset for damages data and services rendered data; and identifying, at the one or more processors, similarities and differences between the datasets.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: adding, at the one or more processors, the transaction to a block of transactions; solving, at the one or more processors, a cryptographic puzzle based upon the block of transactions; adding, at the one or more processors, the solution to the cryptographic puzzle to the block of transactions; and transmitting, at the one or more processors, the block of transactions to at least one other participant in the distributed ledger network.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the claimant and defendant generate the public and private keys offline, and only the public keys are provided to other network participants.

“9. A computer-implemented method for interacting with a distributed ledger maintained by a plurality of participants, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more processors, a transaction related to a subrogation claim; analyzing, at the one or more processors, the transaction related to the subrogation claim; generating, at the one or more processors, a recommended subrogation resolution to the subrogation claim; transmitting, at the one or more processors, a transaction including the recommended subrogation resolution to a smart contract stored on the distributed ledger; and identifying a subrogation claimant with a first cryptographic public key, and identifying a subrogation defendant with a second cryptographic public key; and, subsequently, sending data including a message signed by private keys corresponding to the first and second public keys identifying the subrogation claimant and the subrogation defendant in the smart contract.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the transaction related to the subrogation claim further comprises: analyzing, at the one or more processors, damages data contained in the transaction; and analyzing, at the one or more processors, services rendered data contained in the transaction.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein generating a recommended subrogation resolution further comprises: executing, at the one or more processors, a machine learning algorithm using damages data and services rendered data included in the transaction.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein generating a recommended subrogation resolution further comprises: comparing, at the one or more processors, damages data and services rendered data to a historical dataset for damages data and services rendered data; and identifying, at the one or more processors, similarities and differences between the datasets.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the claimant and defendant generate the public and private keys offline, and only the public keys are provided to other network participants.

“14. A computer system for interacting with a distributed ledger, the system comprising: a network interface configured to interface with one or more processors; a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions and configured to interface with the one or more processors; and the one or more processors configured to interface with the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: identify a transaction related to a subrogation claim; analyze the transaction related to the subrogation claim; generate a recommended subrogation resolution to the subrogation claim; transmit a transaction including the recommended subrogation resolution to a smart contract stored on the distributed ledger; and identify a subrogation claimant with a first cryptographic public key, and identify a subrogation defendant with a second cryptographic public key; and, subsequently, send data including a message signed by private keys corresponding to the first and second public keys identifying the subrogation claimant and the subrogation defendant in the smart contract.

“15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: monitor a smart contract stored at an address on the distributed ledger.

“16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein to identify a transaction related to a subrogation claim, the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: identify a subrogation ID in a transaction; and validate the subrogation ID.

“17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein to analyze the transaction related to the subrogation claim, the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: analyze damages data contained in the transaction; and analyze services rendered data contained in the transaction.

“18. The computer system of claim 14, wherein to generate the recommended subrogation resolution, the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: execute a machine learning algorithm using damages data and services rendered data included in the transaction.

“19. The computer system of claim 14, wherein to generate a recommended subrogation resolution, the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: compare the damages data and services rendered data to a historical dataset for damages data and services rendered data; and identify similarities and differences between the datasets.

“20. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the one or more processors to: generate the public and private keys offline, and provide only the public keys to other network participants.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Call, Shawn M.; Clayton, Wendy H.; Flesher, Kim E.; Graff, Douglas A.; Leise, William J.; Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa; McCoy, Anthony; McCullough, Stacie A.; Runge, Travis Charles; Skaggs, Jaime. Evidence Oracles. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240095848, filed November 29, 2023 and posted March 21, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240095848)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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