Search date: 14 Sept, 2006

Database: Micropatent (PatSearch Fulltext)

Search Strings, Hits & Scope:

• Search I
  • Query: (Life) AND (Insurance OR Reinsurance OR Polic* OR Annuit*) - 532 hits
  • Search scope – Title, Abstract & Claims, Date - 2000 till date
  • Databases: US, EP, WO, JP, DE, GB and FR (common for all)
• Search II
  • Query: (computer) and (Insurance OR Reinsurance) and (Polic* OR Annuit*) – 511 hits
  • Search scope – Title, Abstract & Claims, Date 1991 till date
• Search III
  • Query: (Insurance OR Reinsurance OR polic* or Annuit*) limited by assignee (Insurance OR Bank) – 345 hits
  • Search scope – Title, Abstract & Claims, Date – 1991 till date – 345 hits
• Total # of records - Search I + Search II + Search III = 1239 (excluding duplicates and family members but includes off-target)

Note: All search hits exclude family members and duplicate patent records

The total count here is not equal to 1239, 8 patents (priority date prior to 1990) have already been dropped during 1st filtering process.

IP Activity Over Years

Priority date: The initial date of filing of a patent application, normally in the applicant's domestic patent office. This date is used to help determine the novelty of an invention.

• Assignee names available for only 687 out of 1239 patents
• 459 patents are having inventor name
• In 93 patent records assignee name is not available
• Dolcera will incorporate missing assignee names during the process wherever possible from known sources

Assignees Involved – First cut

• There are other insurance companies also involved apart from key players which will be indicated in final report
• Technology companies apart from GE, IBM

1. Accenture
2. Nippon Electric
3. Ntt DoCoMo
4. Xerox Corp etc…..

• Banks involved are

1. Bank Of America
2. Bank Of Montreal
3. Bank Of New York
4. Chase Manhattan Bank
5. First USA Bank
6. JP Morgan Chase Bank
7. UFJ Bank etc…….

• Above and other Insurance, Banking and Technology assignees will be incorporated in final report

• # of patents (1239) will be reduced after filtering off-target patents, so the numbers presented here will vary in final report
• Patents will be considered for analysis starting date from 1990
• Report completion will take 3-4 weeks

• Content

1. IP landscape
2. Competitor landscape
3. Market landscape
4. Technology landscape
   1. Various dimensions under which patents have been filed
   2. Core insurance firms patents on their internal processes
   3. Technology companies and their activity in Insurance domain
5. Geographic distribution
6. Other standard Dolcera indicators (Dash board, Mind maps etc..)

• Report format

1. Power point
2. Wiki

• Definition of Insurance :
  • Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a potential loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium and duty of care.

• Insurance and risk management is an immense global industry. In America alone, the insurance business employs about 2.5 million people
  
• Life and health insurance in the United States will be about a $725 billion in gross revenues business in 2006, compared to only about $500 billion in 2002
  
• U.S. life insurance firms hold about $3.8 trillion in assets
  
• Personal lines comprise another vast sector of insurance. For example, private passenger automobile insurance will be about a $172 billion annual premium market in the U.S. for 2006
  
• Homeowners insurance is about a $50 billion market
  
• Property and Casualty insurance premiums will total about $450 billion in the U.S. for 2006

• 200 patents have been analyzed and categorized based on type of insurance
• For definitions follow the link
• Number in () indicates # of patents
• Trend - Top insurance filing sectors
  • Maximum number of patents file under general insurance category (110) followed by
  • Life insurnace (37) and
  • Automobile insurance (22)

Distribution of patents - Level-I Analysis

• Above 200 patents further analyzed for more granularity to project various patterns involved
• Trend based on various activities under insurance:
  • Maximum patent filed on insurance information management system (33) followed by
  • Insurance contract management system (28) and
  • on various parameters of insurance premium (18)

Distribution of patents - Level-II Analysis

Automobile Insurance

• Customize insurance policy and customized insurance premium for different cars and people
• Keeping uninsured from driving

Casualty insurance

• Automatic accident reporting system of an insured person

Health insurance

• Pharmacy benefits calculator – selects a cost effective insurance plan form the group of plans

General Insurance

• Capability modeling – Computerized, customized and flexible insurance accepting, declining and design system
• Contract management –
  • Converting current insurance contract to newly launch insurance terms
  • System for decreasing insurance – Computer program calculates point based on the transaction data
  • Reducing insurance policy issuing time by automating assessment processing - Application contents are automatically assessed after checking predefined conditions on applicant terminal
• Real-time insurance coverage verification system
• Online policy and insurance portfolio analysis for greater value and low risk – Analyzing data of present and proposed insurance policies and provides user comparative output for different policies
• Automated insurance processing – processes (mainly verifies) current status of insurance policies
• Risk assessment system – evaluates history of natural/man made disasters in a particular geographical area and sets insurance premium
• Insurance selling system – online auction for life settlement and vertical transactions
• Straight through processing – Insurance policy issuance and management system

Life Insurance

• Annuity – Automated benefit scheme administration apparatus
• Package – Selling other services (funeral plan) along with life insurance
• Retirement – Computer based retirement planning and income arrangement system

Property insurance

• GPS Mobile insurance system – Monitoring current location and condition