IP Library Granted Patent US 11,711,316
Granted Patent B1
US 11,711,316 · App. 17/899,368 · Granted Jul 25, 2023

Online software platform (OSP) accessing digital rules updated based on client inputs

Inventors: Marshal Kushniruk (Bainbridge Island, WA); Naveen Kumar Agrawal (Bellevue, WA); Gregory T. Kavounas (Bellevue, WA); Nikki Nash (Seattle, WA); Stefan Kim (Maple Valley, WA)
Assignee: Avalara, Inc.
H04L47/82G06F16/285
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,711,316
App. No.
17/899,368
Granted
Jul 25, 2023
Kind
B1
Abstract

An online software platform (OSP) classifies challenges to digital rules into buckets according to respective challenged digital rules that were applied to produce respective challenged resources. The OSP computes respective statistics for the buckets. Each bucket may have a corresponding statistic associated with the bucket based on a current total number of challenges that have been classified into that bucket. The OSP ranks the buckets according to the respective statistics of the buckets. The OSP may correct, based on the ranking of the buckets, the respective challenged stored digital rule of the selected bucket without yet correcting the respective challenged digital rule of at least one of the other buckets. This correction is stored and included in digital rules to be used to produce resources going forward.

Claims (60)

1. A method comprising:

receiving datasets from first remote devices via a network, the datasets having respective dataset values;

accessing stored digital rules in response to receiving the datasets;

identifying respective ones of the stored digital rules for respective ones of the datasets responsive to at least one of the dataset values of the respective datasets;

producing, by applying the respective digital rules to the respective datasets, respective resources;

causing notifications to be transmitted via the network to the first remote devices, the notifications being about aspects of the resources;

receiving, from second remote devices via the network, challenges responsive to at least some of the notifications, the challenges disputing challenged ones of the resources;

classifying the challenges into buckets according to respective challenged ones of the digital rules that were applied to produce the respective ones of the challenged resources, in which a bucket is something that groups objects together;

computing respective statistics for the buckets;

ranking the buckets by at least causing a selected one of the buckets to be presented preferentially over others of the buckets according to the respective statistic of the selected bucket relative to the respective statistics of the other buckets;

correcting, based on the ranking the buckets, the respective challenged stored digital rule of the selected bucket without yet correcting the respective challenged digital rule of at least one of the other buckets;

receiving additional datasets from the first remote devices via the network, the additional datasets having respective dataset values;

accessing the stored digital rules in response to receiving the additional datasets;

identifying the corrected digital rule and the yet-uncorrected challenged digital rule for respective ones of the additional datasets responsive to at least one of the dataset values of the additional respective datasets;

producing, by applying the corrected digital rule and the yet-uncorrected digital rule to the respective additional datasets, additional respective resources; and

causing notifications to be transmitted via the network to the first remote devices, the notifications being about aspects of the additional respective resources.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

causing a dispute opportunity to be presented in conjunction with a certain one of the resources in a User Interface (UI) of a certain one of the second remote devices, the dispute opportunity presenting at least one challenged field for a user to make an entry, and

in which one of the challenges is received as such an entry to the challenged field.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the certain second remote device is one of the first remote devices.

4. The method of claim 2 in which the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further result in operations including:

causing the certain resource to be presented in the UI.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

causing a link to be presented in the UI, in which activating the link causes the dispute opportunity to be thus presented.

6. The method of claim 2 in which the challenged field includes a space for text explanation.

7. The method of claim 2 in which:

the dispute opportunity includes at least one aspect of a certain one of the respective challenged ones of the digital rules that was applied to produce the certain resource, and

the challenged field includes the aspect of the certain challenged digital rule.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

looking up a certain dataset value of a certain dataset, and

in which:

the certain resource is caused to thus be presented by being looked up from the certain dataset value, and

the certain challenged digital rule is thus presented by being looked up from the certain dataset value.

9. The method of claim 7 in which: the certain challenged digital rule is thus presented by being looked up from a certain dataset value of a certain dataset, and

the aspect is the very applicability of the certain challenged digital rule to the certain dataset.

10. The method of claim 7 in which:

the certain challenged digital rule specifies a certain percentage rate, and

the certain challenged field is for disputing the certain percentage rate.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

enabling at least one of the challenges by presenting at least one of the challenged digital rules that was applied to produce a respective one of the challenged resources, in which the at least one of the challenges includes a proposed correction to the at least one of the challenged digital rules.

12. The method of claim 11 in which the proposed correction includes a proposed correction to a percentage rate specified by the at least one of the challenged digital rules.

13. The method of claim 1 in which at least one of the challenges includes a link.

14. The method of claim 1 in which:

a first one of the challenges has been classified in a first one of the buckets,

the first challenge does not include a link and contributes a first amount to a first one of the statistics that has been computed for the first bucket,

a second one of the challenges has been classified in a second one of the buckets,

the second challenge includes a link and contributes a second amount to a second one of the statistics that has been computed for the second bucket, and

the second amount is larger than the first amount responsive to the second challenge including a link and the first challenge not including a link.

15. The method of claim 1 in which the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further result in operations including:

causing a dispute opportunity to be presented in conjunction with a produced resource in a User Interface (UI) of a certain one of the second remote devices, the dispute opportunity further including a promise of a reward for a challenge regarding the produced resource, and

in which a certain one of the received challenges is received from the certain second remote device, and a reward is caused to be transmitted according to the promise.

16. The method of claim 15 in which the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further result in operations including:

causing a request to be presented for a separate email address to use to transmit the reward;

receiving the email address in response to the request; and

causing the reward to be transmitted using the email address.

17. The method of claim 15 in which the promise includes a condition and the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further result in operations including:

checking whether the condition is met, in which the reward is caused to be transmitted responsive to the condition being met.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the condition includes that the certain challenge must be among a first N challenges to be received for the challenged resource, where N is a selected number, and in which the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further result in operations including:

ranking, within a bucket into which the certain challenge is classified, challenges classified into the bucket by when the challenges classified into the bucket were received, and

causing the reward to be transmitted in response to, and only if, the certain challenge is among a first N challenges to be received for the challenged resource based on the ranking within the bucket.

Assignments (4)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 28, 2025
From: BLUE OWL CREDIT INCOME CORP. (F/K/A OWL ROCK CORE INCOME CORP.), AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: AVALARA, INC.
Reel/Frame 070671/0413 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 28, 2025
From: AVALARA, INC.; EDISON VAULT, LLC
To: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 070671/0097 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 15, 2023
From: AVALARA, INC.
To: BLUE OWL CREDIT INCOME CORP., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 065885/0119 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 15, 2022
From: KUSHNIRUK, MARSHAL; AGRAWAL, NAVEEN KUMAR; KAVOUNAS, GREGORY T.; NASH, NIKKI; KIM, STEFAN
To: AVALARA, INC.
Reel/Frame 061101/0353 →