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Machine, methods, and program product for electronic inventory tracking

  • US 9,665,855 B2
  • Filed: 11/04/2013
  • Issued: 05/30/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer associated with a first financial institution to define a financial institution computer to facilitate electronic inventory management of a plurality of products provided by a plurality of product providers, the financial institution computer comprising:

  • one or more processors to process data associated with a first financial institution;

    one or more input/output units to communicate with a communication network and an electronic financial payment network adapted to identify a plurality of issuers of a plurality of bank identifier numbers and further adapted to set transaction rules to settle funds between parties of transactions; and

    non-transitory memory encoded with one or more computer programs operable by the one or more processors to facilitate electronic inventory management of a plurality of different products provided by each of a plurality of different product providers so that during operations of the one or more computer programs, the one or more processors operate to perform the following steps;

    generating a plurality of universal product transaction identifiers adapted to be positioned on a plurality of product apparatuses to facilitate electronic inventory management of the plurality of different products of each of the plurality of different product providers, each of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers including a bank identifier number (BIN) issued by the financial institution and a product identifier, each of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers being compatible with the electronic financial payment network to thereby enable the electronic financial payment network to identify the financial institution as the issuer of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers and to relay real-time purchase transaction data over the electronic financial payment network for use by a respective product provider of the plurality of product providers,determining receipt of one or more first transaction messages including one or more of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers and a flag indicating a capability of a payment interface associated with one of a plurality of merchants to support partial-authorization messaging, the one or more first transaction messages being sent through the electronic financial payment network from one or more of a plurality of merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals responsive to one or more purchase requests of one or more of the plurality of different products,sending, by the financial institution computer via the electronic financial payment network responsive to the determining receipt of the one or more first transaction messages, partial-authorization approval data to the one or more of the plurality of merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals to indicate a requirement to tender funds to complete the one or more purchase requests of the one or more of the plurality of different products to thereby use the partial authorization messaging to facilitate communication of product inventory data using the electronic financial payment network,determining receipt of one or more second transaction messages sent through the electronic financial payment network from the one or more of the plurality of merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals, the one or more second transaction messages indicating a purchase acknowledgement, andnotifying, over an external communication network and responsive to the determining receipt of the one or more second transaction messages, at least one of the plurality of product providers of one or more product provider transaction messages, the one or more product provider transaction messages including inventory data regarding one or more of the plurality of different products identified by the one or more of the plurality of universal product transaction identifiers of the one or more first transaction messages and provided by the at least one of the plurality of product providers to the one of the plurality of merchants, each of the plurality of product provider transaction messages further configured to indicate an effect of the purchase of the one or more of the plurality of different products associated with the one or more purchase requests on the count of the plurality of different products of the one of the plurality of different product providers.

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