U.S. Patent 11210416 was awarded to AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. on December 28, 2021 and is entitled “System and method for maintaining graphs having a policy engine and blockchain.” The first named inventor is Sheldon Kent Meredith of Roswell, GA. The abstract contains an overview of the patent disclosure:

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a processing system including a processor and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations. The operations include: identifying a set of one or more graphs in a blockchain ledger, wherein each graph of the set of one or more graphs comprises a set of one or more nodes and a graph permission level, wherein each node in the set of one or more nodes comprises a unique identifier, a node permission level, data and zero or more edges, wherein each edge in the zero or more edges defines a relationship between the node and another node in the set of one or more nodes, wherein the node permission level defines a prerequisite to access the data, the node permission level, or the zero or more edges, and wherein the graph permission level defines a prerequisite to access the set of one or more nodes; receiving a request from equipment utilized by a user to access first data in one or more nodes in a first graph, comparing a user permission of the user to a first permission level of the first graph to ensure that the user permission meets or exceeds the first permission level; applying rules of a rules engine to ensure that the user permission meets or exceeds a second permission level defined by the rules; and providing security keys to the equipment utilized by the user responsive to the user permission meeting or exceeding the first permission level and the second permission level, wherein the security keys provide access to the first data. Other embodiments are disclosed. Link to Full Patent

This blockchain patent was originally filed on May 31, 2019  as U.S. Patent Application 16/428322 at the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office. The application was them awarded a patent grant and published as U.S. Patent 11210416. The primary examiner was Shin-Hon (Eric) Chen.

AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., who is the original assignee of this patent, has at least 16621 total granted patents in the United States as of the date of this article. This blockchain patent has been cited 0 times by other U.S. patents according to our law firm research, and can be considered an innovative patent in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

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