Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Parts Valuation And Use”, for Approval (USPTO 20220198574): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 JUL 11 (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 Marlow, Clint J. (Barrington Hills, IL, US); Riggio, John A. (Mundelein, IL, US); Trinco, Robert L. (Schaumburg, IL, US), filed on March 7, 2022, was made available online on June 23, 2022.

The patent’s assignee is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “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.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “e 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: based on accident information relating to at least one damaged vehicle, identify at least one available part of the at least one damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one available part is available for reuse; determine a likelihood that the at least one available part will be reused based on at least one of a number of vehicles in an inventory of available vehicles where the at least one available part is suitable for reuse and a type of the damaged vehicle; determine a physical storage location corresponding to the at least one available part; and transmit, to a display device, an instruction to store the at least one available part at the physical 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 available part from the damaged 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 available part from the damaged 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 available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that cause the apparatus to transmit the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“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 available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that cause the apparatus to display the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“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 available matches the information received via a network to the data retrieved from a 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 available part may be used, a vehicle model with which the at least one available part may be used, or a likelihood that the at least one available part will be damaged.

“8. A method performed by one or more processors of a computing system and a memory storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: based on accident information relating to at least one damaged vehicle, identifying at least one available part of the at least one damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one available part is available for reuse; determining a likelihood that the at least one available part will be reused based on at least one of a number of vehicles in an inventory of available vehicles where the available part is suitable for reuse and a type of the damaged vehicle; determining a physical storage location corresponding to the at least one available part; and transmitting, to a display device, an instruction to store the at least one available part at the physical storage location.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising transmitting an instruction to the display device to remove the at least one available part from the damaged vehicle.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising displaying, on the display device, an instruction to remove the at least one available part from the damaged vehicle.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that perform operations comprising causing the apparatus to transmit the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“12. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that perform operations comprising causing the apparatus to display the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising causing the one or more processors to determine that the at least one available part matches the information received via a network to the data retrieved from a database based on one or more historical data parameters.

“14. The method of claim 13, 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 available part may be used, a vehicle model with which the at least one available part may be used, or a likelihood that the at least one available part will be damaged.

“15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: based on accident information relating to at least one damaged vehicle, identifying at least one available part of the at least one damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one available part is available for reuse; determining a likelihood that the at least one available part will be reused based on at least one of a number of vehicles in an inventory of available vehicles where the available part is suitable for reuse and a type of the damaged vehicle; determining a physical storage location corresponding to the at least one available part; and transmitting, to a display device, an instruction to store the at least one available part at the physical storage location.

“16. The media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising transmitting an instruction to the display device to remove the at least one available part from the damaged vehicle.

“17. The media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising displaying, on the display device, an instruction to remove the at least one available part from the damaged vehicle.

“18. The media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that perform operations comprising causing the apparatus to transmit the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“19. The media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the one or more processors to output the instruction to store the at least one available part at the storage location comprise computer-executable instructions that perform operations comprising causing the apparatus to display the instruction to store the at least one available part.

“20. The media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising causing the one or more processors to determine that the at least one available part matches the information received via a network to the data retrieved from a database based on one or more historical data parameters comprising at least one of: a part number, a vehicle make with which the at least one available part may be used, a vehicle model with which the at least one available part may be used, or a likelihood that the at least one available part will be damaged.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Marlow, Clint J.; Riggio, John A.; Trinco, Robert L. Parts Valuation And Use. Filed March 7, 2022 and posted June 23, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220198574%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220198574&RS=DN/20220198574

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