Methods of searching public information for sales leads

• US 9,424,278 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2015
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Proven Prospects Inc
• Original Assignee: Proven Prospects Inc
• Inventors: Kennedy, Benjamin J
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US14/738,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20150278832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 437 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/22 by selection of a specific region containing or referencing a pattern; Locating or processing of specific regions to guide the detection or recognition

Abstract

A system and method of identifying UCC Financing Statements by productive asset type, which is useful in identifying prospects for companies that are involved in the distribution, sales, and financing of productive assets. The present invention allows the user of the invention to search UCC financing statements by brand and/or type of equipment that is used as collateral. Using a lead generation technique that involves analyzing and correlating collateral information to UCC financing statements, the statements can be identified and categorized by collateral type. By processing electronic collateral information, as well as an OCR process that converts text contained in images into searchable text. There is also a direct data entry method of gathering collateral information. This collateral information is then used in an innovative relational database. Also, the proposed invention categorizes UCC financing statements by collateral type using a method of querying specific equipment type keywords, such as equipment names and brand names. Also, the proposed invention merges UCC addendums and amendments allowing the user to view the most current UCC financing information without looking at multiple filings.

Claims

1. A method of identifying customers of productive assets, comprising:

machine-searching a plurality of Uniform Commercial Code financing statements that each includes a field for collateral information on specific productive assets that are supplied as collateral for a transaction underlying the financing statement, and corresponding party information of the collateral information, wherein corresponding collateral information fields in the financing statements are filled with either markup language data, images, or no information;

machine-collecting the collateral information and the corresponding party information of each financing statement into respective records, including;

in response to detecting the corresponding collateral information fields containing the markup language data, automatically retrieving the markup language data and entering the markup language data into the respective records,

in response to detecting the corresponding collateral information fields containing the images, automatically converting the images to a searchable digital text form and entering converted searchable digital text form into the respective records, and

in response to detecting the corresponding collateral information fields containing no information, automatically flagging the financing statement to a user, manually obtaining, by the user, collateral information, and automatically entering the obtained collateral information into the respective records; and

machine-organizing the respective records by the collateral information to identify the corresponding party information, including keyword mapping the collateral information into particular equipment specific categories.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of machine-collecting includes converting any images in any one of the respective records to the searchable digital text form and combining the converted searchable digital text form with corresponding markup language data in that record.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of machine-collecting includes linking the images to the converted images in the searchable digital text form and the corresponding markup language data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of keyword mapping the collateral information into the particular equipment specific categories includes linking both names of a particular equipment type and brand names of manufacturers of the particular equipment type into any one particular equipment specific category.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each financing statement includes initial filing information and addendum information, and the method further includes adding the addendum information to the initial filing information to create a single record.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each financing statement includes initial filing information and addendum information, and the method further includes overriding the initial filing information with the addendum information to create a single record.

7. The method of claim 1, further including presenting the respective records in a format with hyperlinks for the collateral information and the corresponding party information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein one of the hyperlinks for the corresponding party information includes a web-based interactive map.

9. A method of identifying customers of productive assets, comprising:

machine-searching a number of Uniform Commercial Code financing statements filed for finance transactions wherein at least some of the financing statements include an image within a field for collateral information on specific productive assets that are supplied as collateral for a transaction underlying a particular financing statement, and corresponding party information of the collateral information;

machine-recording the corresponding party information from each financing statement;

machine-retrieving the collateral information image from the field within the at least some of the financing statements and performing an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process on the retrieved collateral image to derive digital text representing the collateral information;

machine-organizing the collateral information in conjunction with the corresponding party information into records in a searchable database, including keyword mapping the collateral information into particular equipment specific categories; and

machine-presenting the records in a format with hyperlinks for the collateral information and the corresponding party information, wherein one of the hyperlinks for the corresponding party information includes a web-based interactive map.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of keyword mapping the collateral information into the particular equipment specific categories includes linking both names of a particular equipment type and brand names of manufacturers of the particular equipment type into any one particular equipment specific category.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein each financing statement includes initial filing information and addendum information, and the method further includes adding the addendum information to the initial filing information to create a single record.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein each financing statement includes initial filing information and addendum information, and the method further includes overriding the initial filing information with the addendum information to create a single record.

13. The method of claim 9, further including presenting the records in a format with hyperlinks for the collateral information and the corresponding party information.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein one of the hyperlinks for the corresponding party information includes a web-based interactive map.

15. A method of informing providers of productive assets, comprising:

machine-culling a database of Uniform Commercial Code financing statements that each includes a field for collateral information on specific productive assets that are supplied as collateral for a transaction underlying the financing statement, and a secured party field with secured party information, wherein the machine-culling including identifying productive asset keywords that are contained in corresponding collateral information fields; and

machine-organizing output from the step of machine-culling by sorting corresponding secured party information and collateral information including the identified productive asset keywords from the Uniform Commercial Code financing statements into particular productive asset categories, wherein each financing statement includes initial filing information and addendum information, and the method further includes adding the addendum information to the initial filing information to create a single record.

16. The method of claim 15, further including identifying Uniform Commercial Code filings by querying corresponding collateral information fields with a particular set of keywords that relate to the particular productive asset categories.

17. The method of claim 16, further including placing the filings into the particular productive asset categories.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of machine-organizing includes sorting the corresponding secured party information and the collateral information from the financing statements into particular secured party categories, and further including identifying Uniform Commercial Code filings by querying secured party fields with a particular set of names that relate to a particular secured party category.

19. The method of claim 15, further including presenting the records in a format with hyperlinks for the collateral information and the secured party information.

20. The method of claim 15, further including presenting the records in a format with hyperlinks for the collateral information and the secured party information, and wherein one of the hyperlinks for the secured party information includes a web-based interactive map.