# Patent

## Title
Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag

## Abstract

A method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag to receive status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant. It is determined whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record. The status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new. The updated message indicating the received status information is then composed and sent to the customer.

## Background
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/426,573, filed Oct. 25, 1999, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/725,635, filed Oct. 8, 1996, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,264, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/695,095, filed Aug. 8, 1996, now abandoned.
This application is related to copending patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled “Method and System for Requesting Status Information from a Common Carrier,” filed ______ and patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Method and System for Providing Order Status Information using a Network Address,” filed ______, each commonly assigned with the present invention.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce and more particularly to updating customers as to the status of their orders and order shipments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the mail order industry, it is common practice to notify customers by mail when their orders are backlogged or their shipments will be delayed for some reason. The advent of wide area electronic networks like the Internet has made it possible for customers to query the status of their orders and shipments by directly accessing the merchants' and shippers' information systems. For example, both Federal Express® (FedEx®) and United Parcel Service® (UPS®) have world wide web sites on the Internet where customers can track the shipping status of their packages by simply inputting the package's tracking number to a computer form on a web page.
There is an advantage however, to notifying customers by mail when their shipments will be delayed, because the customer is not required to take any action to receive this notification—that is, the customer does not have to proactively access the Internet or other network, go to the shipper's world wide web site, and obtain and input a parcel tracking number in order to check on the shipping status.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,778 to Brookes (“Brookes”), a keyword based profile is used to match information coming into a system with the users' interests. In Brookes, the user is alerted to the presence of the information in the database (perhaps because there is a delivery fee associated with the information), but the information is not actually delivered to the user.
Also in the related art are several Internet-based electronic mail systems that deliver information to users daily via E-mail based on personal profiles. There are, for example, several stock quotation services that electronically mail a list of a user's personal favorite stock prices each day. Unlike Brookes, such systems do deliver the information directly to the user. However, the user is required to submit an interest profile to the system in order to receive feedback.
There is a need in the art, therefore, for a system and method for automatically notifying a party of the status of a delivery without requiring submission of a status request or special profile information from the party.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag is described. According to one aspect of the invention, status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant is received. It is determined whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record. The status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new. The updated message indicating the received status information is then composed and sent to the customer.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The aforementioned advantages of the invention, as well as additional advantages thereof, will be more fully understood as a result of a detailed description of the exemplary embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computer environment for implementing the system and method of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is block diagram of components illustrating an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the status requester and its method of operation.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the status receiver and its method of operation.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the electronic mail messenger and its method or operation.



DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT
The present invention may be implemented as a computer program 248 running on a central server host computer shown in FIG. 1, attached to a wide area network 275 accessible by many potential customers through remote terminals 210 using keyboard 240, pointing device 260 and monitor 280. An exemplary network for implementing the present invention is the Internet which is accessible by a significant percentage of the world population, although the network may also be a local area or limited area accessible network.
Information about the customers and their respective orders is maintained in a status database 16 such as the one shown in FIG. 2. Status database 16 may be maintained on server 250 shown in FIG. 1. Individual customer orders may be placed in this database either by order entry personnel 300 or electronically by order entry systems also attached to wide area network 275 of FIG. 1. Status information in status database 16 may be updated manually by order entry personnel or electronically by other means such as status receiver 14 shown in FIG. 2.
Periodically via status query 10, status requester 13, sends a status request to another host computer on wide area network 275, such as a common carrier shipping service like UPS® or FedEx®. Status information 11 is returned and received by status receiver 14, which places the new status information in status database 16. When status receiver 14 updates the status in status database 16, it sets a flag on the particular database record indicating a change in status.
Periodically, electronic mail messenger 15 checks status database 16, to see if the status of any record has changed, by examining the records' status flags. If a record has been flagged, then electronic mail messenger 15 composes an electronic mail message 12 based on the new status information in status database 16. This electronic mail message 12 is transmitted to the customer over the wide area network 275.
FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of status requester 13. In an exemplary embodiment, the status requester is continually running a program that periodically requests status updates from other host computers on wide area network 275. After waiting 21 for a designated time, which for a shipping status update is preferably every six to twenty-four hours, status database 16 is checked 22 to see if there are more status records. If so, then a status record is selected 23 and a status request is composed 24. This status request is sent 25 to another host computer on wide area network 275. This requesting process continues until each of the status records in status database 16 have been checked 22.
FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of status receiver 14. In the exemplary embodiment, the status receiver is a continually running program that periodically receives status information 11 from another host computer on wide area network 275 based on requests generated by status requester 13. Wide area network 275 is continually checked for new status information 11. If new status information is found available at 31 then the status information is received 32 and the corresponding status record is fetched 33 from status database 16. The information is compared with that in the status record to determine 34 if the received information is new. If the received information is new, then the status record is updated 35 in status database 16 and the Updated Status flag is set 36 in the status record.
FIG. 5 illustrates the operation of electronic mail messenger 15. In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic mail messenger is a continually running program that periodically checks 41 status database 16 to see if any records have an “Updated Status” flag set. If so, the appropriate status record is fetched 42 from status database 16 and an electronic mail message is composed 43 regarding the new status information. This electronic mail message is then preferably sent 44 to the recipient over wide area network 275.
One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will recognize that the various components of the system may communicate between themselves in a variety of ways. In an exemplary embodiment, status receiver 14 signals electronic mail messenger 15 via an “Updated Status” flag in the appropriate database records that a new update message should be sent. However, status receiver 14 could directly communicate with electronic mail messenger 15 to send a status update message without setting a signaling flag in status database 16 and awaiting discovery of such a flag by the electronic mail messenger.
One skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will further recognize that components of status requester 13 and status receiver 14 may be combined into a single module that communicates with a remote host computer in a synchronous fashion. For example, the status requester portion of the combined module could send a status request to the remote host computer and wait for the status information to be received before proceeding to submit the next status request to the remote host computer. This type of synchronous operation is quite common in electronic data interchange applications.
The present invention may be implemented as a software program on a host computer such as 250 in FIG. 1 within a network 275 such as the Internet. The program may be loaded onto computer 250 from disk 248 or a similar storage medium.
A general description of the present invention as well as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been set forth above. Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will recognize and be able to practice additional variations to the methods and system described within the teachings of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications and additions are deemed to be within the scope of the invention, which is to be limited only by the appended claims.

## Claims

1. A method to provide update information, the method including:
receiving status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant; 
determining whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record; 
if the received status information is new, then updating the status record to include the received status information; and 
composing and sending an update message to the customer, the update message indicating the received status information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating of the status record includes setting a flag associated with the status record.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the composing and sending of the update message includes performing a check to see if the flag associated with the status record is set and sending the message if the flag is set.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the composing and sending of the update message is performed directly responsive to the determining that the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is an electronic mail message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving an electronic mail address from the customer when the customer places the order, the electronic mail address being associated with the customer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information is received from an information system of a common carrier.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information includes information regarding the location of the order.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
requesting the status information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from a common carrier information system.

10. An electronic commerce system, comprising:
a status receiver to receive status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant; and 
an electronic mail messenger coupled with the status receiver, to determine whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record, wherein the status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new, wherein the electronic mail messenger composes and sends an update message to the customer, the update message indicating the received status information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the status receiver updates the status record by setting a flag associated with the status record.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the electronic mail messenger composes and sends the updated message responsive to determining that the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the message is an electronic mail message.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic mail messenger sends the message using an electronic mail address associated with the customer.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the status information is received from an information system of a common carrier.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the status information includes information regarding a location of the order.

17. The system of claim 10, further including:
a status requester, coupled to the status receiver and the electronic mail messenger, to request the status information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from a common carrier information system.

18. A machine-readable medium have executable instructions to cause a machine to perform a method to provide update information, the method including:
receiving status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant; 
determining whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record; 
if the received status information is new, then updating the status record to include the received status information; and 
composing and sending an update message to the customer, the update message indicating the received status information.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the updating of the status record includes setting a flag associated with the status record.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the composing and sending of the update message includes performing a check to see if the flag associated with the status record is set and sending the message if the flag is set.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the composing and sending of the update message is performed directly responsive to the determining that the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the message is an electronic mail message.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:
receiving an electronic mail address from the customer when the customer places the order, the electronic mail address being associated with the customer.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the status information is received from an information system of a common carrier.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the status information includes information regarding a location of the order.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:
requesting the status information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from a common carrier information system.

27. An electronic commerce system, comprising:
a receiving means for receiving status information pertaining to an order placed by a customer with a merchant; and 
a messaging means for determining whether the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record, wherein the status record is updated to include the received status information if the received status information is new, wherein the messaging means composes and sends an update message to the customer, the update message indicating the received status information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the receiving means is for updating the status record by setting a flag associated with the status record.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the messaging means is for composing and sending the updated message responsive to determining that the received status information is new relative to further status information pertaining to the order stored within a status record.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the message is an electronic mail message.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the messaging means is for sending the message using an electronic mail address associated with the customer.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein the status information is received from an information system of a common carrier.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein the status information includes information regarding a location of the order.

34. The system of claim 27, further including:
a requesting means, coupled to the receiving means and the messaging means, for requesting the status information pertaining to the order placed by the customer from a common carrier information system.