New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents concern blockchains (distributed ledgers, smart contracts) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Walmart, the first patent addresses techniques for managing reservations and deliveries for a docking station. Assigned to Americorp Financial, the second patent addresses techniques for generating a customized view of a blockchain transaction.
10,423,921, "Delivery reservation apparatus and method," assigned to Walmart.
Abstract
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to manage reservations and deliveries for a docking station. More specifically, the various embodiments described herein track spaces on a docking station to determine whether one or more spaces are available when requested by a delivery device. Each space on the docking station has a corresponding capacity unit for each location on the docking station. The transactions for the capacity units are tracked in a ledger, with available capacity units indicating an open location on the docking station or contracted out capacity units indicating that either the location has a locker secured thereto or that the location is reserved for a future delivery.
10,425,426, "Customized view of restricted information recorded into a blockchain," assigned to Americorp Investments LLC
Abstract
Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein to generate a customized view of a blockchain transaction. A blockchain of block entries requested by a plurality of users from user devices is maintained in a distributed network of nodes. The block entries each comprise a plurality of data portions that are each associated with an access level. A request to view one or more data portions of a block entry is received which includes an access code associated with at least one access level. The access code in the request is evaluated with the blockchain of block entries to identify one or more data portions associated with the access level. A customized view of the block entry is generated which includes the one or more data portions associated with the access level.
