ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,293,416, issued on May 6, was assigned to Allstate Insurance Co. (Northbrook, Ill.).
"Communication of insurance claim data" was invented by Randall M. Hanson (Grayslake, Ill.), James A. Ledder (Prairie Grove, Ill.) and Charles Ronald O'halloran (Downers Grove, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Aspects of the invention are directed to methods and systems for efficiently communicating data between an insurer and a non-referral repair shop, e.g., vehicle repair shops that are normally not preapproved by the insurer to perform the estimating and repair work. The methods and systems described herein are particularly useful for insurers uti...