{
  "patent_number": "US 9998475",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Smart Home Devices Automatically Connect to Utility Energy Programs",
  "original_title": "Streamlined utility portals for managing demand-response events",
  "summary": "A system that lets smart home devices like thermostats enroll in energy-saving programs without the user needing to manually provide their utility account number.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a digital handshake between a smart home device management server (like Google Nest) and a utility company's computer system. Instead of forcing a user to hunt down a physical utility bill to find an account number, the system sends identifying information, such as a name and address, to the utility's API. The utility's system checks if that information matches an existing customer account. If it matches and the device is eligible, the system automatically triggers the enrollment process for demand-response programs, which help manage power grid load during peak usage.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover manual enrollment processes where a user must input a utility account number.",
    "Does not cover systems that do not use an API to communicate between the device server and the utility provider.",
    "Does not cover the actual hardware design or internal sensors of the smart home device itself.",
    "Does not cover methods for controlling the device once enrolled, only the enrollment authorization process."
  ],
  "filed": "2015-06-17",
  "granted": "2018-06-12",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Google LLC",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/google-llc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Jonathan Crimins",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/jonathan-crimins"
    },
    {
      "name": "William Greene",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/william-greene"
    },
    {
      "name": "Scott McGaraghan",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/scott-mcgaraghan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Scott Ruffner",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/scott-ruffner"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jared Luxenberg",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/jared-luxenberg"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 7,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "energy",
    "software"
  ],
  "abstract": "A method for authorizing a smart-home device for enrollment with a demand-response program may include receiving, at a control server of an energy management system and for the smart-home device, identifying information for a user account. The method may also include sending the identifying information from the control server to an Application Program Interface (API) with an enrollment request. The method may additionally include receiving, at the control server, a determination from the API as to whether the identifying information for the user account was matched to an existing utility account. The method may further include based on the determination from the API, determining whether the smart-home device can be enrolled with the demand-response program.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9998475/azure-iot-hub",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9998475/azure-iot-hub/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US9998475",
  "relatedPatents": []
}