IP Library Granted Patent US 12,417,464
Granted Patent B2
US 12,417,464 · App. 18/179,960 · Granted Sep 16, 2025

Autonomous contingency-responsive smart contract configuration system

Inventors: Charles Howard Cella (Pembroke, MA); Andrew S. Locke (Farmington, MI)
Assignee: STRONG FORCE VCN PORTFOLIO 2019, LLC
G06Q30/0206G05B13/048G06F9/4881G06N5/043G06N10/60G06N10/80G06N20/00G06Q10/0631G06Q10/06315G06Q10/087G06Q30/0201G06Q30/0625G06Q40/04
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,417,464
App. No.
18/179,960
Filed
Mar 7, 2023
Granted
Sep 16, 2025
Kind
B2
Art Unit
3625
USPC
705/7.31
Abstract

A system for managing future costs associated with a product includes a future requirement system programmed to estimate an amount of resources required for manufacturing, distributing, and selling the product at a future point in time. The system includes an adverse contingency system configured to identify adverse contingencies and calculate changes in costs associated with obtaining the amount of resources at the future point in time. The system includes a smart contract system programmed to autonomously configure and execute a smart futures contract based on the amount of resources required and on the changes in costs to manage the future costs associated with the product.

Claims (32)

1. A system for managing a set of future costs associated with a product, the system comprising:

a future requirement system programmed to estimate an amount of resources required for manufacturing, distributing, and selling the product at a future point in time;

an adverse contingency system configured to identify a set of adverse contingencies and calculate changes in a set of costs associated with obtaining the amount of resources at the future point in time; and

a smart contract system configured to autonomously configure and execute a smart futures contract based on the amount of resources required and on the changes in the set of costs to manage the set of future costs associated with the product, wherein:

the smart contract system is configured to configure the smart futures contract by using a machine learning robotic agent to autonomously determine terms and conditions for the smart futures contract,

the smart contract system is configured to train the machine learning robotic agent on a training set of data,

the training set of data is based on a training set of interactions of a set of users with a set of inputs, and

the smart contract system is configured to retrain the machine learning robotic agent based on feedback from a set of outcomes of the set of adverse contingencies.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is further configured to execute the smart futures contract based on providing a set of improved outcomes after the set of adverse contingencies.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the adverse contingency system is further configured to estimate probabilities of at least one of: shortages in supply, supply chain disruptions, changes in demand, changes in prices of inputs, or changes in market prices as the set of adverse contingencies.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the adverse contingency system is further configured to estimate probabilities of at least one of macro-economic factors, geopolitical disruptions, disruptions due to weather or climate, epidemics, pandemics, or counterparty risks as the set of adverse contingencies.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is configured to set prices, delivery times, and delivery locations required in order to provide a pre-determined inventory of an item in response to the set of adverse contingencies.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is configured to configure at least one of parts, components, fuel, or materials required to provide a pre-determined inventory of an item as the set of inputs with the machine learning robotic agent.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the set of inputs includes at least one of demand forecasts, inventory forecasts, demand elasticity curves, predictions of competitive behavior, or supply chain predictions.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is configured to train the machine learning robotic agent with interactions within an enterprise demand planning software suite as the set of inputs.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is configured to train the machine learning robotic agent to interact with a set of demand models that at least one of forecast demand factors, forecast supply factors, forecast pricing factors, forecast anticipated equilibria between supply and demand, generate estimates of appropriate inventory, generate recommendations for supply, or generate recommendations for distribution.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the smart contract system is configured to configure the smart futures contract to automatically execute to obtain commitments for supply in response to discovery of a pre-defined market condition associated with an adverse contingency of the set of adverse contingencies.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the machine learning robotic agent is configured to renegotiate at least a subset of the terms and conditions based on the feedback from the set of outcomes of the set of adverse contingencies.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the set of adverse contingencies includes at least one of: a shortage in supply, a supply chain disruption, a change in demand, a change in a price of a set of inputs, or a change in a set of market prices.

13. A computerized method for managing a set of future costs associated with a product, the computerized method comprising:

estimating an amount of resources required for manufacturing, distributing, and selling the product at a future point in time;

identifying a set of adverse contingencies;

calculating changes in a set of costs associated with obtaining the amount of resources at the future point in time;

autonomously configuring and executing a smart futures contract based on the amount of resources required and on the changes in the set of costs to manage the set of future costs associated with the product;

configuring the smart futures contract by using a machine learning robotic agent to autonomously determine terms and conditions for the smart futures contract;

training the machine learning robotic agent on a training set of data, wherein the training set of data is based on a training set of interactions of a set of users with a set of inputs; and

retraining the machine learning robotic agent based on feedback from a set of outcomes of the set of adverse contingencies.

14. The computerized method of claim 13 wherein executing the smart futures contract includes executing the smart futures contract based on providing a set of improved outcomes after the set of adverse contingencies.

15. The computerized method of claim 14 further comprising estimating probabilities of at least one of shortages in supply, supply chain disruptions, changes in demand, changes in prices of inputs, or changes in market prices as the set of adverse contingencies.

16. The computerized method of claim 14 further comprising estimating probabilities of at least one of macro-economic factors, geopolitical disruptions, disruptions due to weather or climate, epidemics, pandemics, or counterparty risks as the set of adverse contingencies.

17. The computerized method of claim 13 further comprising configuring at least one of parts, components, fuel, or materials required to provide a pre-determined inventory of an item as the set of inputs with the machine learning robotic agent.

18. The computerized method of claim 13 further comprising training the machine learning robotic agent to interact with a set of demand models that at least one of forecast demand factors, forecast supply factors, forecast pricing factors, forecast anticipated equilibria between supply and demand, generate estimates of appropriate inventory, generate recommendations for supply, or generate recommendations for distribution.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 27, 2023
From: CELLA, CHARLES HOWARD; LOCKE, ANDREW S.
To: STRONG FORCE VCN PORTFOLIO 2019, LLC
Reel/Frame 064084/0812 →
Priority Claims (1)
IN 202211008709 · Feb 18, 2022 · national
Continuity (8)
Continuation In Part PCTUS2022028633 · May 10, 2022
Continuation In Part PCTUS2022025103 · Apr 15, 2022
Provisional Application 63302013 · Jan 21, 2022
Provisional Application 63299710 · Jan 14, 2022
Provisional Application 63282507 · Nov 23, 2021
Provisional Application 63187325 · May 11, 2021
Provisional Application 63176198 · Apr 16, 2021
Related Publication 20230222531A1 · Jul 13, 2023
References Cited (103)
US 6985877B1 · Hayward · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 8131581B1 · Pang · 2012 [cited by examiner]
US 8156022B2 · Fell · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 10642847B1 · Nerurkar et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20030171963A1 · Kurihara et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20080009968A1 · Bruemmer · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20140365258A1 · Vestal et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150378807A1 · Ball et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20160203407A1 · Sasaki et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160236867A1 · Brazeau et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20170032281A1 · Hsu · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170057081A1 · Krohne et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20180004202A1 · Onaga · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180136633A1 · Small et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190028276A1 · Pierce et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190102850A1 · Wheeler · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190130425A1 · Lei · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 20190138662A1 · Deutsch et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190278527A1 · Yeung et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190317935A1 · Berti et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190325044A1 · Gray · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 20190347358A1 · Mishra et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20200019935A1 · Jan et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200104730A1 · Strong · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200111092A1 · Wood et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200118131A1 · Diriye et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200150687A1 · Halder · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200160288A1 · Bauerschmidt et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200175531A1 · Ma · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200184558A1 · Crumb · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200184559A1 · Crumb et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200184560A1 · Crumb et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200184565A1 · Crumb et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200193449A1 · Crumb et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200210966A1 · Nuthi et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200211092A1 · Sarin · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200258031A1 · Makhija · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200294142A1 · Edkins et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200356871A1 · Mueller · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200372104A1 · Calix · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20210110342A1 · Blackburn et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210117910A1 · Koc · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210118166A1 · Temblay et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210133669A1 · Cella et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210138656A1 · Gothoskar et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210178575A1 · Riek et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210256442A1 · Jagmohan · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 20210264553A1 · Gajnutdinov et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210358035A1 · Patel · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20210383523A1 · Simson et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20220076174A1 · AlAbdulkarim · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20220108308A1 · Hanebeck · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220122173A1 · Lopatin · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220138852A1 · Huchedé · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220261905A1 · Gorham · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220271956A1 · Hung · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20220301055A1 · Beddis · 2022 [cited by applicant]
US 20230015846A1 · Toffey · 2023 [cited by applicant]
US 20230050430A1 · Piau · 2023 [cited by examiner]
CA 3118308A1 · 2020 [cited by applicant]
CN 104036007A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
JP 2008299579A · 2008 [cited by applicant]
KR 20140054897A · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO 2014015492A1 · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO 2018172593A2 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
WO 2020142499A1 · 2020 [cited by applicant]
WO 2019070644A2 · 2021 [cited by applicant]
Fryer et al., “Configuring robots from modules: an object oriented approach”, Advanced Robotics, 1997. ICAR '97. Proceedings., 8th International Conference on Monterey, CA, USA Jul. 7-9, 1997, New York, NY, USA, IEEE, U… [cited by applicant]
Craye et al., “BioVision: A Biomimetics Platform for Intrinsically Motivated Visual Saliency Learning”, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, IEEE, vol. 11, No. 3, Sep. 1, 2019, ISSN 2379-8920, pp. 3… [cited by applicant]
Anonymous, “Datasheet: EL-10-30-Series Fast Electrically Tunable Lens Electrical specifications”, OptoTune, Dec. 10, 2019, pp. 1-16, URL: /https://prologoptics.com/wp-content/uploads/OptotuneEL-10-30.pdf. [cited by applicant]
Kiviat, Trevor, “Smart' Contract Markets: Trading Derivatives Contracts on the Blockchain”, Apr. 2015, URL: https://www.academia.edu/10766594/Smart_Contract_Markets_Trading_Derivatives_on_the_Blockchain. [cited by applicant]
Wise et al., “Legal smart contracts for derivative trading in mining”, Knowledge Engineering Review., Cambridge University Press, vol. 35, Jan. 1, 2020. [cited by applicant]
Bterrell Group, “RPA's role in automation in finance for midmarket financial services companies”, Sep. 28, 2020, URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20200928211033/https://www.bterrell.com/robotic-process.automation-rpa/fi… [cited by applicant]
Sharma, “What Happens when RPA and Blockchain Work Together?”, Blockchain Council, Jun. 12, 2020, URL: https://www.blockchain-council.org/blockchain/what-happens-when-rpa-and-blockchain-work-together/. [cited by applicant]
Harvest Public Media, “Futures Market Explained”, Youtube, May 25, 2016, URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC9VeHr13Es. [cited by applicant]
Jangir, Sandip, et al. “A novel framework for pharmaceutical supply chain management using distributed ledger and smart contracts.” 2019 10th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technolog… [cited by applicant]
Daian, Philip, et al. “Flash boys 2.0: Frontrunning, transaction reordering, and consensus instability in decentralized exchanges.” Apr. 10, 2019. arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.05234 (2019). (Year: 2019). [cited by applicant]
Liao, Chia-Hung, Hui-En Lin, and Shyan-Ming Yuan. “Blockchain-enabled integrated market platform for contract production.” IEEE Access 8 (2020): 211007-211027. [cited by applicant]
Kiviat, Trevor I. ““Smart” Contract Markets: Trading Derivatives Contracts On the Blockchain,” (2015). [cited by applicant]
Revoredo-Giha, Cesar, and Marco Zuppiroli. Commodity futures markets: are they an effective price risk management tool for the European wheat supply chain ?. No. 1052-2016-85898. 2013. [cited by applicant]
Wall, Eric, and Gustaf Malm. “Using blockchain technology and smart contracts to create a distributed securities depository.” Jun. 29, 2016. (2016). [cited by applicant]
Fontem, Belleh, and Megan Price. “Joint client selection and contract design for a risk-averse commodity broker in a two-echelon supply chain.” Oct. 15, 2021. Annals of Operations Research 307 (2021): 111-138. [cited by applicant]
Wilson, “Accenture: building suply chain resilience amidst COVID-19”, Supply Chain Magazine, May 17, 2020. [cited by applicant]
Schatteman, “Supply Chain Lessons from Covid-19: Time to Refocus on Resilience”, Bain & Company, 2020. [cited by applicant]
Ganeriwalla et al., “Three Paths to Advantage with Digital Supply Chains”, BCG Perspectives, 2016. [cited by applicant]
Deloitte, “Digital Technologies Dirve Supply Chain Innovation”, CIO Journal, Sep. 26, 2018. [cited by applicant]
Kelly et al., “Supply chains and value webs”, Deloitte University Press, 2015. [cited by applicant]
IW Staff, “75% of Companies in ISM Virus Survey Report Supply Chain Disruptions”, Industry Week, Mar. 11, 2020. [cited by applicant]
MHI Deloitte, “8. 2019 MHI Annual Industry Report: Elevating Supply Chain Digital Consciousness”, 2019. [cited by applicant]
PwC “PwC's COVID-19 CFO Pulse”, Jun. 2020. [cited by applicant]
CB Insights, “Supply Chain & Logistics Tech in Numbers” Powerpoint presentation, Jul. 2020. [cited by applicant]
O'Leary, “The Modern Supply Chain is Snapping”, The Atlantic, Mar. 19, 2020. [cited by applicant]
Bukova et al., “The Position of Industry 4.0 in the Worldwide Logistics Chain”, LOGI—Scientific Journal on Transport and Logistics, vol. 9, No. 1, 2018, pp. 18-23. [cited by applicant]
Lin et al., “Here's how global supply chains will change after COVID-19”, World Economic Forum, May 6, 2020. [cited by applicant]
Ferrantino et al., “Understanding Supply Chain 4.0 and its potential impact on global value chains”, Apr. 2017. [cited by applicant]
Anonymous, “AI Set to Drive Global Supply Chain Technology Market to $440 Billion by 2023”, ABI Research, Jan. 29, 2019. [cited by applicant]
WIPO, International Search Report for PCT/US2022/028633, issued Sep. 23, 2022. [cited by applicant]
WIPO, Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US2022/028633, issued Sep. 23, 2022. [cited by applicant]
Manish Grover, “How Daml can complement Robotic Process Automation (RPA),” Nov. 3, 2020, Digital Asset. [cited by applicant]
Eggers, Julia, et al. “Process automation on the blockchain: an exploratory case study on smart contracts,” 2021. [cited by applicant]
Howells, “How the network economy is revolutionizing supply chains,” World Economic Forum, Jan. 14, 2015. [cited by applicant]
Nair, Price discovery and pairs trading potentials: the case of metals markets, Journal of Financial Economic Policy 13.5, 565-586 (2021) (Year: 2021). [cited by applicant]
European Patent Office, Extended European Search Report for EP app. No. 22808223.6, dated Apr. 8, 2025. [cited by applicant]
Cited By (1)
US 12,705,394