Editing Insurance (section)

===Insurance patents===
{{update|date=January 2018}}
{{Further|Insurance patent}}
New assurance products can now{{when|date=January 2025}} be protected from copying with a [[business method patent]] in the [[United States]].

A recent example of a new insurance product that is patented is [[Usage-based insurance|Usage Based]] [[vehicle insurance|auto insurance]]. Early versions were independently invented and patented by a major US auto insurance company, [[Progressive Corporation|Progressive Auto Insurance]] ({{US patent|5797134}}) and a Spanish independent inventor, Salvador Minguijon Perez.<ref>{{Cite patent|country=EP|number=0700009|title=Individual evaluation system for motorcar risk|inventor1-first=Salvador|inventor1-last=Minguijon Perez|pubdate=1996-03-06}}</ref>

Many independent inventors are in favor of patenting new insurance products since it gives them protection from big companies when they bring their new insurance products to market. Independent inventors account for 70% of the new U.S. patent applications in this area.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

Patenting new insurance products can be risky, as it is practically impossible for insurance companies to determine if their product will infringe on a pre-existing patent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Solutions |first=LexisNexis Intellectual Property |date=2021-10-20 |title=Key Findings Patent Risk Survey |url=https://www.lexisnexisip.com/resources/key-findings-patent-risk-survey/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions |language=en-US}}</ref> For example, in 2004, [[The Hartford]] insurance company had to pay $80 million to an independent inventor, Bancorp Services, in order to settle a patent infringement and theft of trade secret lawsuit for a type of corporate owned life insurance product invented and patented by Bancorp.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BANCORP SERVICES v. HARTFORD LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY (2004) |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-federal-circuit/1241840.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=Findlaw |language=en-US}}</ref>

There are currently about 150 new patent applications on insurance inventions filed per year in the United States. The rate at which patents have been issued has steadily risen from 15 in 2002 to 44 in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://marketsandpatents.com/IPB-12152006.mht|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927235655/http://www.marketsandpatents.com/IPB-12152006.mht|url-status=usurped|title=(Source: Insurance IP Bulletin, December 15, 2006)|archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref>

The first US insurance patent was granted in 2005, which concerned coverage of data transferred over the internet.<ref>{{Cite patent|country=US|number=6922720|title=Systems and methods for insuring data over the internet|inventor1-last=Cianciarulo |inventor1-first=Krys|inventor2-last=Cardot |inventor2-first=Stephen|inventor3-last=Weiseth |inventor3-first=Thomas|assign=Portogo Inc.|pubdate=2005-07-26}}</ref> Another example of an application posted was posted in 2009.<ref> {{cite patent
| country	= US
| number	= 20090055227
| status	= patent
| title		= Risk Assessment Company
| pubdate	= 2009-02-26
| inventor1-last	= Bakos
| inventor1-first	= Thomas L.
}}</ref>{{dead|date=January 2025}} This patent application describes a method for increasing the ease of changing insurance companies.<ref>Bakos, Nowotarski, "{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160409224203/http://www.marketsandpatents.com/bulletin/IPB-12152008.html An Experiment in Better Patent Examination]}}", Insurance IP Bulletin, 15 December 2008.</ref>