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Machine, methods, and program product for electronic inventory tracking

  • US 9,785,922 B2
  • Filed: 04/19/2012
  • Issued: 10/10/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer adapted to issue a plurality of identifiers to be positioned on a plurality of product apparatuses to facilitate electronic inventory management of a plurality of different products provided by a plurality of different product providers through an existing electronic financial payment network to thereby define an issuer processor computer, the issuer processor computer comprising:

  • one or more central processing units;

    one or more input/output units operable to communicate with a plurality of merchant acquirer computers associated with a plurality of merchants through an existing electronic financial payment network, each of the plurality of merchant acquirer computers operable to receive a plurality of purchase requests from one or more of the plurality of merchants;

    one or more non-transitory memories encoded with one or more computer programs operable by the one or more central processing units so that during operations thereof, issuer processor computer operates to perform the following steps;

    generating a plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers to be positioned on the plurality of product apparatuses to facilitate inventory management of the plurality of different products of the plurality of different product providers, each of the plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers comprising an issuer identifier number (IIN) and a product identifier and being compatible with the existing electronic financial payment network,forming one or more product look up tables to correlate the plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers with the plurality of different products responsive to receiving product data from the plurality of different product providers,determining, responsive to receiving one or more first purchase transaction messages comprising one or more of the plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers and a flag indicating a capability of a point of sale terminal to support partial-authorization messaging, whether the one or more of the plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers are valid according to the one or more product look up tables, the one or more first purchase transaction messages being sent through the existing electronic financial payment network from one or more of the plurality of merchant acquirer computers responsive to one or more purchase requests for one or more of the plurality of different products from the point of sale terminal positioned remote from the issuer processor computer, the point of sale terminal interfacing with one or more of the plurality of plurality of product apparatuses to retrieve the one or more of the plurality of financial payment network compatible identifiers,sending, responsive to determination that the one or more of the plurality of product identifiers are valid, partial-authorization approval data to the one or more of the plurality of merchant acquirer computers to thereby indicate a requirement to tender funds to complete the purchase request of the one or more of the plurality of different products, andproviding, responsive to receiving one or more second purchase transaction messages indicating a purchase acknowledgement of the one or more of the plurality of different products from the one or more of the plurality of merchant acquirer computers, inventory data of the plurality of different products to the plurality of different product providers, the inventory data indicating a number of the plurality of different products purchased at the plurality of merchants.

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