INTEGRATED POSTAGE AND SHIPPING LABEL SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The field of the invention relates to online postage services, and more particularly to systems and methods for enabling a shipping label service to be integrated with a third party application or website.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Known online postage services, such as Endicia™ Internet Postage (www.endicia.com), enable computer users to purchase U.S. postage and apply individual postage indicia to a wide spectrum of envelopes and labels using standard computer printers. These systems are based on Information Based Indicia ("IBI"), wherein information to uniquely identify a particular postage indicium, e.g., postage meter account number and meter piece count, is presented in barcode and/or human readable form on each mailpiece. These user-controlled systems have historically focused on producing complete mail pieces, i.e., these systems produce complete envelopes or labels, which contain the destination address, return address, the postage indicium, the date of mailing, the class mail, optional graphics and branding and mail processing barcodes, e.g., POSTNET or Delivery Confirmation.

[0003] Turning to Fig. 1, the computer environment in which a user may purchase online postage is shown. A user at a personal computer 11a connects to a server computer 15 configured to enable the user to electronically purchase valid postage, typically via an Internet- type network 20. The user interacts with a software program, e.g., DAZzIe by Envelope Manager Software, on the personal computer 11a, downloaded from the server computer 15 and/or installed on the personal computer 11a, that allows the user to manage postage purchases. Systems of purchasing, printing, and generating online postage are described in U.S. Patent Nos. 5,319,562 to Whitehouse, filed August 22, 1991, and 6,005,945 to Whitehouse, filed March 20, 1997, both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0004] Electronic commerce ("e-commerce") is an industry that is contributing to the growth in popularity of online postage services largely because the online postage services can efficiently and cost-effectively support the high volume of transactions that e-commerce companies typically deal with. For example, Endicia™ Internet Postage enables e-commerce sellers to purchase and print a virtually unlimited number of postage and shipping labels upon immediate request, which allows the sellers to rapidly fulfill product orders even at high volume without the need for expensive postage metering hardware.

[0005] However, current systems require e-commerce sellers to manage multiple applications, e.g., applications to handle payments and applications to handle postage and shipping, which can create some inefficiencies in operation. Accordingly, an improved online postage service would be desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The present invention is generally directed to online postage services, and more particularly to systems and methods for enabling a shipping label service to be integrated with a third party application. One preferred embodiment includes a computer program product having a computer-usable medium with a sequence of instructions, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a process that provides online postage and shipping label services. The computer program product is configured to be integrated into a third party web or desktop application, and the process includes the steps of enabling a user of the third party web or desktop application to purchase postage, and enabling a user to generate one or more images of one or more shipping labels.

[0007] Another preferred embodiment is directed to an online postage service that includes a carrier system, such as the USPS, a postage and label server communicatively connected to the carrier system via a secure link, whereby the postage and label server provides postage and label services as web services, and a third party application accessible by an Internet user, whereby said third party application includes computer program code that integrates the postage and label services with the third party application.

[0008] Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] In order to better appreciate how the above-recited and other advantages and objects of the present inventions are obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. However, like parts do not always have like reference numerals. Moreover, all illustrations are intended to convey concepts, where relative sizes,

shapes and other detailed attributes may be illustrated schematically rather than literally or precisely.

Fig. 1 is an illustration of a prior art online postage service.

Fig. 2 is a diagram of an online postage service in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is an illustration of a process in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is an illustration of a shipping label in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Turning to Fig. 2, an online postage service 100 in accordance with a preferred embodiment is shown. The online postage service 100 includes a server 120 that provides postage and label services accessible to a plurality of third party applications 130/135 via an application program interface ("API") 140, as will be described in more detail below. The API 140 enables the plurality of third party applications 130/135, such as web applications or websites 130 accessible by an Internet user 106 via a web server 131 and desktop applications 135, i.e., applications residing on a user's 106 desktop, to provide the postage and label services to Internet or desktop Internet-connected users 106 as an integrated part of the third party applications 130/135. The postage and label server 120 is communicatively coupled to a carrier system, such as the United States Postal Service ("USPS") 110 via secure link known in the art and manages postage transactions for the third party applications 130/135. In a preferred embodiment, the network connection between the carrier system 110 and the postage and label server 120 and the postage and label server 120 and the third party applications 130/135 utilizes the internet 105; however the network connection can use any network technology known in the art, including private networks.

[0011] During operation, the Internet user 106 accessing the third party application 130/135 can purchase postage and produce a shipping label image, which can be printed on the Internet user's 106 local printer (not shown) and placed on the package or envelope to be shipped. Postage and shipping services available, via the API 140, to a third party application 130/135 include generating an image of a shipping label, purchasing postage, setting up new postage accounts, and issuing refunds for unused postage purchased.

[0012] The postage and label services API 140 is implemented using systems and methods known in the art. For example, the API 140 may be implemented as a Microsoft Windows Dynamic Link Library ("DLL") or component object model ("COM"). In one preferred

embodiment, the API 140 is implemented as extensible markup language ("XML") web services, which are invoked using standards based on simple object access protocol ("SOAP") and/or hyper text transfer protocol ("HTTP"), known in the art. This enables a third party application 130/135, such as an e-commerce application to integrate the postage and label services 120 as part of the third party application 130/135. In one aspect of this embodiment, a user 106 of the third party application 130/135 can purchase postage and generate a shipping label as part of the third party application 130/135 without installing new software or change their workflow. An integrated shipping label, complete with postage, delivery/return addresses, and Delivery Confirmation or Express Mail barcodes (in the case of USPS carrier system) can be produced by the third party application using the API 140. This is particularly useful to a variety of applications, such as e-commerce systems, multi-carrier web and desktop shipping systems, browser based environments and applications serving enterprise customers, customer relations management ("CRM") applications, procurement and logistics products, return on demand systems, wherein companies can efficiently process returns on demand, and other applications such as Microsoft's Outlook or QuickBooks as one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate.

[0013] In one example, the e-commerce website, www.Amazon.com, can incorporate the postage and label services 120 into the portions of the website accessible by an auction seller. Upon completion of a transaction for the sale of a product and upon the request of the seller, Amazon's e-commerce system can generate an image of a shipping label to the buyer of the product via the postage and label services API 140 and forward the image to the seller to download, print, and apply to the product for immediate shipment. The postage and label services 120 will appear to the seller as part of the online auction system. In the alternative, the e-commerce system can be configured to generate the appropriate shipping label automatically without the need for the seller's interaction.

[0014] For the developer of the third party application 130/135, the postage and label server 120 maintains accounts and manages transactions with the postal service 110. The postage and label server 120 can create and manage a single account associated with the third party application 130/135, in the case where the cost of all shipping labels generated through the web application 130/135 are charged to the single account, or in the alternative, the postage and label server 120 can create and manage multiple accounts associated with the third party application 130/135, which is particularly useful in the case where the third party application 130/135 has the Internet user 106 directly control a postage account through the postage and label server 120.

[0015] In one preferred embodiment, the postage and label server 120 manages accounts and transactions with the United States Postal Service ("USPS"). One unique aspect of the USPS 110 compared to other competing carriers is that the postage from the USPS 110 possesses monetary value that, without proper security measures, can be stolen or counterfeited. One security measure known in the art is to generate a postage indicium having an identification unique within USPS that identifies the account associated with the generated postage. Thus, the type of USPS postage generated in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention are from mail classes that the USPS can scan and track. This includes all mail classes that include delivery confirmation, such as first class packages, parcel post, media mail, and priority mail, and tracking, such as Express Mail, Global Express Mail, PLANET code tracking, and Global Mail Classes that include Customs Forms scanned by the USPS, such as Global Priority Mail and Global Parcel Post. By using postage that can be tracked, multiple users from multiple locations can use the same postage account with the postage and label server 120.

[0016] hi the preferred embodiment, systems and methods for generating the unique postage indicia are disclosed and described in 6,005,945 to Whitehouse, which was incorporated by reference in its entirety above, and U.S. Application No. 09/990,605 to Montgomery et al., filed November 20, 2001, which is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. These references describe, among other things, the generation of a digital signature incorporated with a postage indicium derived from a combination of items such as account number, serial number, and/or destination address. The digital signature is then encrypted using appropriate private and public keys.

[0017] Turning to Fig. 3, the operation of a postage and label server 120 (in fig. 2) coupled via a secure link to the USPS system 110 is shown (process 200). In this process 200, the postage and label services of server 120 is preferably made available as XML web services, and a third party application 130/135 has integrated an interface 140 that invokes the postage and label services upon request from an Internet user 106 accessing the third party application 130/135. An account has been established with the USPS system 110 for the Internet user 106 using systems and methods known in the art. Upon request by the Internet user 110 to generate a shipping label to be placed on a package to be sent to a particular destination address, the third party application 130/135 sends a request to the postage and label server 120, via the API 140, to generate the requested shipping label (action block 210).

[0018] The postage and label server 120, in response to the request, validates the destination address of the shipping label (action block 220). The validation uses systems and methods known in the art and generally includes the steps of searching a database of known valid

addresses, e.g., a postal database such as the Dial-A-Zip address database, for a street address match; determining whether the city and zip code of the destination address is a match; and determining whether there is a single match in the database, instead of multiple matches. The validation step further determines if the destination address is an Army Post Office ("APO") or Fleet Post Office ("FPO") address, which involve different carrier systems. If the destination address is invalid, (decision block 230), then the postage and shipping label server 120 will return an error to the third party application 130/135 (action block 235). Otherwise, the postage and shipping label server 120 will generate a tracking identification to be associated with the requested shipping label (action block 240) and the postage indicium for the shipping label (action block 250). Thus, in the case of the postage and label server 120 being connected to the USPS, the postage indicium will be unique within the USPS, as described above.

[0019] The postage and label server 120 will then generate an image of the requested shipping label 300, an example of which is shown in Fig. 4, having the unique postage indicium 310, destination address 350, and tracking identification 317. The indicium 310 includes all of the information discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562, incorporated above, some in human readable form and some represented in a PDF-417 or DataMatrix two dimensional barcode 315. The barcode 315 contains a host of information, including the meter number and a unique serial number for the shipping label 300 of the mail piece, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562. The USPS specifications require use of the PDF417 indicium barcode, or other two dimensional barcodes such as the DataMatrix, as shown in Fig. 4. Some of the data in the barcode are attributable to an attempt to incorporate letter/parcel tracking information, and part is to accommodate an encryption signature and accompanying public key information, which is used in combination to provide a "self-authenticating" feature to the postage indicium 310 and shipping label 300.

[0020] The image 300 can be generated using any systems and methods known in the art, such as products from Adobe or products that generate Joint Photographic Experts Group ("JPEG") or graphic interchange format ("GIF") images or other imaging formats known in the art, such as bitmap ("BMP"), portable network graphics ("PNG"), ZPL, or EPL (action block 260). The postage and label server 120 then deducts the cost of the postage for the shipping label 300 from the account associated with the shipping label request (action block 270), and the image 300 is then forwarded to the third party application 130/135 (action block 280), which the third party application 130/135 can make available to the requesting Internet user 106 for download. Any type of shipping labels 300 can be generated, e.g., a simple 6 inch by 4 inch label that can then be printed on popular thermal printers or any normal desktop printer on labels or simple 8.5 inch by 11 inch plain paper or an L-Form shipping label known in the art, wherein the

image 300 can be combined into a packing form (not shown) and printed with that combination on a sheet so a worker can walk down to a warehouse, select what needs to ship, pack the box, and then peel off the shipping label part to place on the outside of the box while placing the rest of the sheet in the box as a packing slip. Such a shipping label can be generated for a variety of carrier systems, such as the USPS.

[0021] In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the reader is to understand that the specific ordering and combination of process actions described herein is merely illustrative, and the invention can be performed using different or additional process actions, or a different combination or ordering of process actions. As a further example, each feature of one embodiment can be mixed and matched with other features shown in other embodiments. Additionally and obviously, features may be added or subtracted as desired. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.