Patent Foundation
DataRelay Grant is being defined from the approval-management invention represented by the following granted patents.
Inventor: Young Oak Lee / 이영옥
The U.S. and Korean patents belong to the same underlying invention lineage and share the 2023-03-13 priority foundation. Their issued claim sets are not word-for-word identical, so this page treats them as the same product foundation rather than claiming that every issued claim is identical.
Problem addressed
The patent material starts from a simple operational problem: approval is important, but conventional approval often requires conversations, document handoffs, forms, and manual interpretation of free-form responses. The invention turns that interaction into a structured approval case and connects the human decision to a deterministic next action.Core approval flow
The common technical pattern is:- Create an approval-request case from user-provided information or an API-originated request.
- Send the approval request to an approver through email.
- Capture an explicit result such as approve, pending, or deny.
- If denied, notify the requester or originating system.
- If pending, send reminders at configured intervals.
- If approved, execute or trigger the automation associated with the selected playbook.
Email as the approval interface
The issued material describes an email-centered interface in which an approver can select a response through a generated response menu. The response can be represented by a hyperlink carrying approval-server, case, response, and approver information. This makes the approval step lightweight for the approver while keeping the result structured enough for automated processing.Templates and guided request creation
The patent material also describes:- case templates;
- lists of automation playbooks / scenarios;
- approver lists; and
- guidance returned to a requester when the submitted email does not contain enough information to create a valid approval case.
Modular automation
Automation is described as a composition of reusable modules or unit operations. A playbook / scenario is formed from a combination of those operations, allowing the approval result to control a defined automated action rather than an unspecified manual follow-up.External-system integration
The patent foundation explicitly includes a second system sending an approval request to the approval-management server through an API message and receiving the result back through an API message. That pattern is the basis for positioning DataRelay Grant as a reusable approval layer for other DataRelay products and for external systems that need a human authorization gate.Product interpretation
For DataRelay Grant, the patent concepts translate into the following design principles:- Human decision stays explicit. Approval is not inferred from ambiguous text.
- Execution is gated. The requested automated action is separated from the authorization decision.
- Approval is reusable. Other systems can request approval instead of implementing their own approval workflow.
- Automation is composable. Approved work can be represented as a defined playbook built from reusable operations.
- Pending is a real state. A request can remain open and drive reminders without being treated as approved or denied.