Method and system for generating shipping labels

• US 8,600,902 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2006
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Kumar, Rachel Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, George
• Application Number:
  US11/642,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20080154781A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,540 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1, 705 711- 742, 705 261- 2644, 705330-342, 707/1
• US Class Current: 705/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

A system generates an encoded identifier representing shipping data associated with the first party, wherein the shipping data is associated with a transaction between the first party and a second party. The system then communicates the encoded identifier to the second party and the second party creates a shipping label including the encoded identifier. The encoded identifier is decoded by a shipping service provider thus providing the shipping data of the first party.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

extracting shipping data and shipping preferences, using one or more processors, from a user record of a first party;

generating, at a third party, an encoded identifier representing the shipping data associated with the first party, the shipping data being associated with a transaction between the first party and a second party, the shipping data being stored at the third party performing the extracting and the generating; and

communicating the encoded identifier and the shipping preferences to the second party to create, based on the shipping preferences, a shipping label data file including the encoded identifier that, when decoded by a fourth party shipping service provider, provides a shipping label based upon the shipping data of the first party, the third party and fourth party shipping service provider being different entities.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from the fourth party shipping service provider to provide the shipping data, the request including the encoded identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising retrieving the shipping information based on the encoded identifier and communicating the shipping information to the fourth party shipping service provider.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a unique encoded identifier representing the shipping data associated with the first party for each transaction between the first party and the second party.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating shipping data for a plurality of users to the fourth party shipping service provider to store in its storage system, wherein the fourth party shipping service provider decodes the encoded identifiers and retrieves the shipping data from the storage system.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising communicating decoding information from the third party to the fourth party shipping service provider, the decoding information being used to decode the unique encoded identifier to obtain the shipping data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the shipping data from the first party and creating the user record, wherein the shipping data includes at least one record entry from a list of record entries consisting of name, address, payment data, shipping privacy preference, shipping service provider preference, and one or more item identifiers associated with the transaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the shipping data is directly encoded in the shipping label data file.

9. A system, comprising:

one or more servers associated with a third party, the one or more servers comprising;

an encoder module to extract shipping data and shipping preferences from a user record of a first party stored at the third party and to generate, at the third party, an encoded identifier comprised of the shipping data associated with the first party, the shipping data being associated with a transaction between the first party and a second party;

a seller module to send the encoded identifier and the shipping preferences from the encoder module to the second party, the second party to create, based on the shipping preferences, a shipping label including the encoded identifier; and

a decoder module to be used by a fourth party shipping service provider to decode the shipping label associated with a package received from the second party to generate shipping data associated with the first party for the package, the third party and fourth party shipping service provider being different entities.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a user data module to receive a request from the fourth party shipping service provider to provide the shipping data, the request including the encoded identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user data module is further configured to retrieve the shipping information based on the encoded identifier and to communicate the shipping information to the fourth party shipping service provider.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the encoder module is further configured to generate a unique encoded identifier representing the shipping data associated with the first party for each transaction between the first party and the second party.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the seller module is further configured to communicate decoding information to the fourth party shipping service provider, the decoding information to decode the unique encoded identifier to obtain the shipping data.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a user data module to communicate shipping data for a plurality of parties associated with a network-based publishing system to the fourth party shipping service provider, wherein the decoder module is arranged to decode the encoded identifier and retrieve the shipping data from a local storage.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising a user data module to receive the shipping data from the first party and to create the user record, wherein the shipping data includes at least one record entry from a list of record entries consisting of name, address, payment data, shipping privacy preference, shipping service provider preference, and one or more item identifiers associated with the transaction.

16. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a third party, an encoded identifier and shipping preferences at a second party, the encoded identifier generated from shipping data extracted from a user record of a first party stored at the third party and associated with the first party engaged in a transaction for one or more items with the second party; and

creating, using one or more processors and based on the shipping preferences, a shipping label including the encoded identifier for the one or more items that, when decoded by a fourth party shipping service provider, provides the shipping data of the first party, the third party and fourth party shipping service provider being different entities.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the receiving the encoded identifier includes receiving the encoded identifier from a transaction intermediary.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving transaction data, the transaction data including at least one from the list of transaction data consisting of payment data, one or more item identifiers, and shipping preference.

19. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a fourth party shipping service provider, a shipping package having a shipping label including an encoded identifier, the encoded identifier generated from shipping data extracted from a user record of a first party stored at a third party and sent by the third party to the second party, the shipping label created based on shipping preferences extracted from the user record of the first party; and

decoding the encoded identifier, using one or more processors, to obtain the shipping data of the first party, the shipping data pertaining to a shipping address of the first party that transacted for one or more items with a second party, the third party and fourth party shipping service provider being different entities.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein decoding the encoded identifier includes translating the encoded identifier into readable text, the readable text including at least the shipping address.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the decoding the encoded identifier further includes:

communicating the encoded identifier to a transaction intermediary, the transaction intermediary facilitating the transaction between the first party and second party; and

receiving the shipping data from the transaction intermediary, the shipping data being used to ship the shipping package to the first party.

22. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

extracting shipping data and shipping preferences from a user record of a first party;

generating, at a third party, an encoded identifier representing the shipping data associated with the first party, the shipping data being associated with a transaction between the first party and a second party, the shipping data being stored at the third party performing the extracting and the generating; and

communicating the encoded identifier and the shipping preferences to the second party wherein the second party creates, based on the shipping preferences, a shipping label including the encoded identifier that when decoded by a fourth party shipping service provider provides the shipping data of the first party, the third party and fourth party shipping service provider being different entities.