System and method for generating information relating to histories for a plurality of vehicles

• US 7,778,841 B1
• Filed: 05/06/2004
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Raines, Richard T., Bayer, Gerald A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mooneyham; Janice A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fisher; Michael J
• Application Number:
  US10/839,757
• Time in Patent Office: 2,294 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/306
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

System and method for generating information relating to a vehicle'"'"'s history. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of identifying target records in a database, determining a total number of owners for each vehicle based on the target records, and displaying a listing of the vehicles including corresponding number of owners. A step of determining and displaying the ownership type may be provided. A vehicle history information system is also provided, including a database having vehicle history records, a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve the vehicle history record, an ownership module adapted to determine the number of owners for the vehicles based on the vehicle history records, and a user interface module adapted to generate a listing of the vehicles and the number of owners. The system may be adapted to determine and display the ownership type.

Claims

1. A method for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising the steps of:

identifying records in a database, said records being related to a particular vehicle and having information relating to the particular vehicle'"'"'s history;

identifying a target record in said records, said target record being indicative of ownership of said particular vehicle;

identifying a trigger record in said records;

determining if said target record indicates an ownership transfer in which ownership of said particular vehicle is transferred from one owner to another owner based on said identified trigger record;

determining the number of owners of said particular vehicle;

repeating the above steps for records in said database related to another vehicle; and

displaying a listing of vehicles including the number of owners corresponding to said vehicles listed.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of sorting said listing of said vehicles based on the number of owners.

3. The method of claim 1, further including the step of determining an ownership type for each of said plurality of vehicles based on registration records.

4. The method of claim 3, further including the step of limiting the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a determined number of owners and an ownership type.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said ownership type is at least one of Personal Use, Leased Vehicle, Rental, Government, Fleet, Commercial, Taxi, and Non-profit.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said target record is at least one of a vehicle title and a vehicle registration, and said step of determining if said target record indicates an ownership transfer includes the step of determining a time interval between said target record and said trigger record based on dates of said records.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles are from at least one of an inventory of an automotive dealer, and an online vehicle advertisement web site.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said trigger record is at least one of:

a used vehicle sale record provided by a third party vehicle data provider;

a vehicle for sale record from at least one of an automotive auction, an automotive inventory, a fleet management, and a rental company;

a service plan record;

a dealer usage record indicating retrieval of vehicle history information for said vehicle generated by said dealer accessing said database;

a user confirmation record based on inputted information from a user questionnaire indicating sale of said vehicle; and

a dealer sale record stored in a database of certified vehicles indicating sale of said vehicle.

9. A method for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising the steps of:

identifying target records in a database having information relating to vehicle histories of said plurality of vehicles, said target records being indicative of ownership of said plurality of vehicles;

determining a total number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles based on said target records; and

displaying a listing of vehicles including the number of owners corresponding to each vehicle listed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of determining the total number of owners includes the step of determining whether each of said target records indicates an ownership transfer in which ownership is transferred from one owner to another owner by determining a time interval between said target record and a trigger record.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles are from at least one of an inventory of an automotive dealer, and an online vehicle advertisement web site.

12. The method of claim 9, further including the steps of determining an ownership type for each of said plurality vehicles based on registration records of each of said vehicles, and limiting the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a determined number of owners, and an ownership type.

13. A method for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising the steps of:

identifying target records in a database having information relating to vehicle histories of said plurality of vehicles, said target records being indicative of ownership of said plurality of vehicles;

determining if each of said target records indicates an ownership transfer in which ownership of said particular vehicle is transferred from one owner to another owner;

determining an ownership type for each target record determined to be indicative of an ownership transfer for each of said plurality of vehicles; and

displaying a listing of vehicles including said determined ownership type for each listed vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13, further including the step of determining and displaying a total number of owners for each listed vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14, further including the step of limiting the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

16. A method for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising the steps of:

entering at least one criterion into an online vehicle advertisement web site;

identifying a plurality of vehicles in said online vehicle advertisement web site that satisfy said at least one criterion entered;

determining the number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles; and

displaying a listing of said identified plurality of vehicles that satisfy said at least one criterion entered with corresponding number of owners for said listed vehicles.

17. The method of claim 16, further including the step of determining and displaying an ownership type for said listed vehicles.

18. The method of claim 17, further including the step of limiting the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

19. A vehicle history information system adapted to generate information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

a database having vehicle history records, each vehicle history record relating to vehicle history of a particular vehicle;

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve said vehicle history records for each of said plurality of vehicles from said database;

an ownership module adapted to identify target records indicative of ownership for each of said plurality of vehicles, identify trigger records, and determine whether said target records indicate ownership transfers in which ownership of said plurality of vehicles is transferred between owners based on said identified trigger records, and to determine a number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles; and

a user interface module adapted to generate a displayable listing of vehicles with the determined number of owners for said listed vehicles.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said user interface module is further adapted to sort said listing of vehicles based on a number of owners.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein said ownership module is further adapted to determine an ownership type based on registration records for each of said plurality vehicles.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said user interface module is further adapted to limit number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein said ownership type is at least one of Personal Use, Leased Vehicle, Rental, Government, Fleet, Commercial, Taxi, and Non-profit.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein said target record is at least one of a vehicle title and a vehicle registration, and said ownership module is further adapted to calculate a time interval between said target record and said trigger record based on dates of said records.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein said vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles are from at least one of an inventory of an automotive dealer, and an online vehicle advertisement web site.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein said trigger record is at least one of:

a used vehicle sale record provided by a third party vehicle data provider;

a vehicle for sale record from at least one of an automotive auction, an automotive inventory, a fleet management, and a rental company;

a service plan record;

a dealer usage record indicating retrieval of vehicle history information for said vehicle generated by said dealer accessing said database;

a user confirmation record based on inputted information from a user questionnaire indicating sale of said vehicle; and

a dealer sale record stored in a database of certified vehicles indicating sale of said vehicle.

27. A vehicle history information system adapted to generate information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

a database having vehicle history records, each vehicle history record relating to vehicle history of a particular vehicle;

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve said vehicle history records for each of said plurality of vehicles from said database;

an ownership module adapted to determine an ownership type for each of said plurality of vehicles; and

a user interface module adapted to generate a displayable listing of vehicles and the determined ownership type for said vehicles listed.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said ownership module is further adapted to determine a number of previous owners for each of said plurality of vehicles based on said target records, and said user interface module is further adapted to display said determined number of owners for each of said vehicles listed.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said user interface module is further adapted to limit the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

30. A vehicle history information system adapted to generate information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

a user interface module adapted to allow entry of at least one criterion into an online vehicle advertisement web site;

a database having vehicle history records, each vehicle history record relating to vehicle history of a particular vehicle;

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve said vehicle history records for each of said plurality of vehicles from said database; and

an ownership module adapted to determine the number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles;

wherein said user interface module is further adapted to generate a displayable listing of vehicles satisfying said criteria with corresponding number of owners for each vehicle listed.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein said ownership module is further adapted to determine the number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles based on said target records, and said user interface module is further adapted to display said determined number of owners for said vehicles listed.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein said at least one criterion includes at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

33. A computer readable medium for generating information relating to a vehicle'"'"'s history, said medium comprising:

instructions for identifying records in a database, said records being related to a particular vehicle and having information relating to the particular vehicle'"'"'s history;

instructions for identifying a target record in said records, said target record being indicative of ownership of said particular vehicle;

instructions for identifying a trigger record in said records;

instructions for determining if said target record indicates an ownership transfer in which ownership of said particular vehicle is transferred from one owner to another owner based on said identified trigger record;

instructions for determining the number of owners for said particular vehicle;

instructions for repeating the above steps for records in said database related to another vehicle; and

instructions for displaying a listing of vehicles including the determined number of owners for said vehicles listed.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further including instructions for sorting said listing of vehicles based on the number of owners.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further including instructions for determining an ownership type for each of said vehicles based on registration records.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further including instructions for limiting the number of vehicles listed based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further including instructions for determining a time interval between said target record and said trigger record based on dates of said records.

38. A computer readable medium for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

instructions for identifying target records in a database having information relating to vehicle histories of said plurality of vehicles, said target records being indicative of ownership of said plurality of vehicles;

instructions for determining if each of said target records indicates an ownership transfer in which ownership of said particular vehicle is transferred from one owner to another owner;

instructions for determining an ownership type for each target record determined to be indicative of an ownership transfer for each of said plurality of vehicles; and

instructions for displaying a listing of vehicles including said determined ownership type for each vehicle listed.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 38, further including instructions for determining and displaying a number of owners for each vehicle listed.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 39, further including instructions for limiting the number of vehicles listed based on at least one of a number of owners and an ownership type.

41. A computer readable medium for generating information relating to vehicle histories of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

instructions for allowing entry of at least one criterion into an online vehicle advertisement web site;

instructions for determining the number of owners for each of said plurality of vehicles;

instructions for identifying vehicles in said online vehicle advertisement web site that satisfy said at least one criterion entered; and

instructions for displaying a listing of said identified vehicles that satisfy said at least one criterion entered with corresponding number of owners for said vehicles listed.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further including instructions for determining and displaying an ownership type for each vehicle listed.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 42, further including the step of limiting the number of vehicles listed in said listing of vehicles based on at least one of a determined number of owners and an ownership type.

44. A method for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

providing a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

receiving at least one search criterion including number of previous owners;

searching said database to identify at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one search criterion received; and

retrieving vehicle history records for said at least one vehicle identified as satisfying said at least one search criterion.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein said received number of previous owners of said at least one search criterion is a maximum number of previous owners so that said at least one vehicle identified has no more than said received number of previous owners.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein said at least one vehicle identified is a plurality of vehicles, and further including displaying a list of said identified vehicles that satisfy said at least one search criterion together with the number of previous owners for said identified vehicles listed.

47. The method of claim 46, further including sorting said identified vehicles listed based on said number of previous owners.

48. The method of claim 44, further including generating an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified.

49. The method of claim 48, further including grouping said previous ownership information for each previous owner for display in said ownership page, and displaying said grouped previous ownership information with a previous owner heading for each group.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein said previous ownership information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.

51. A method for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

providing a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

receiving at least one search criterion;

searching said database to identify at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one search criterion received; and

generating an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified, said previous ownership information being grouped for each previous owner, and being displayed with a previous owner heading for each group.

52. The method of claim 51, further including determining a number of previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified, and displaying the determined number of previous owners in said ownership page.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein said displayed previous ownership information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.

54. A vehicle history information system for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

a user interface module adapted to allow entry of at least one search criterion including number of previous owners; and

a vehicle history report module adapted to identify and retrieve said vehicle history records from said database for at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one search criterion.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein said number of previous owners of said at least one search criterion is a maximum number of previous owners so that said at least one vehicle identified has no more than said number of previous owners.

56. The system of claim 54, wherein said at least one vehicle identified is a plurality of vehicles, and said user interface module is further adapted to generate a displayable list of vehicles satisfying said at least one search criterion together with the number of previous owners for said listed vehicles.

57. The system of claim 56, wherein said user interface module is further adapted to allow sorting of said displayable list of vehicles based on the number of previous owners.

58. The system of claim 54, wherein said user interface module is further adapted to generate an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of an identified vehicle, said previous ownership information being grouped according to each previous owner and being displayed with a previous owner heading for each group.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein said displayed previous ownership information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.

60. A vehicle history information system for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

a user interface module adapted to allow entry of at least one search criterion; and

a vehicle history report module adapted to search said database to identify at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one search criterion entered;

wherein said user interface module is further adapted to generate an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified, said previous ownership information being grouped for each previous owner, and being displayed with a previous owner heading for each group.

61. The system of claim 60, further including an ownership module adapted to determine the number of previous owners for said at least one vehicle identified, and wherein said ownership page generated includes the number of previous owners for said at least one vehicle.

62. The system of claim 60, wherein said displayed information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.

63. A computer readable medium for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

instructions for accessing a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

instructions for receiving at least one search criterion including number of previous owners;

instructions for searching said database to identify at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one search criterion received; and

instructions for retrieving vehicle history records for said at least one vehicle identified as satisfying said at least one search criterion.

64. The medium of claim 63, wherein said number of previous owners of said at least one search criterion is a maximum number of previous owners so that said at least one vehicle identified has no more than said received number of previous owners.

65. The medium of claim 63, wherein said at least one vehicle identified is a plurality of vehicles, and further including instructions for displaying a list of said identified vehicles that satisfy said at least one search criterion together with the number of previous owners for said identified vehicles listed.

66. The medium of claim 65, further including instructions for sorting said listed vehicles based on said number of previous owners.

67. The medium of claim 63, further including instructions for generating an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of an identified vehicle, said previous ownership information being grouped according to each previous owner and including a previous owner heading for each group.

68. The medium of claim 67, wherein said previous ownership information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.

69. A computer readable medium for providing information relating to a vehicle comprising:

instructions for accessing a database having vehicle history records relating to a plurality of vehicles;

instructions for receiving at least one search criterion;

instructions for searching said database to identify at least one vehicle that satisfies said at least one criterion received; and

instructions for generating an ownership page that displays previous ownership information associated with previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified, said previous ownership information being grouped for each previous owner, and being displayed with a previous owner heading for each group.

70. The medium of claim 69, further including instructions for determining a number of previous owners of said at least one vehicle identified, and displaying the determined number of owners in said ownership page.

71. The medium of claim 69, wherein said displayed information includes at least one of date, location, and ownership type.