Abstract:
The present invention is generally directed to online postage services and systems that have an online connection, and more particularly to systems and methods for enabling a shipping label service to be integrated with a third party application or website. 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 an online postage and shipping label service. The computer program product is configured to be integrated into a third party application, and the process includes the steps of enabling a user of the third party application to purchase postage, and enabling a user to generate one or more images of one or more shipping labels via the third party application.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     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 
     Known online postage services, such as Endicia™ Internet Postage, 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. 
     Turning to  FIG. 1 , the computer environment in which a user may purchase online postage is shown. A user at a personal computer  11   a  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., DAZzle by Envelope Manager Software, on the personal computer  11   a , downloaded from the server computer  15  and/or installed on the personal computer  11   a , that allows the user to manage postage purchases. Systems of purchasing, printing, and generating online postage are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562 to Whitehouse, filed Aug. 22, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945 to Whitehouse, filed Mar. 20, 1997, both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     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. 
     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 
     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. 
     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. 
     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 
       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 
     Turning to  FIG. 2 , an online postage service  100  in accordance with a preferred embodiment is shown. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945, which was incorporated by reference in its entirety above, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/990,605 to Montgomery et al., filed Nov. 20, 2001, which is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, a postage vendor may generally provide various online postal services that include, among other things, generating and sending self-validating unique postage indicia to end users. Thus, as further described therein, the online postage service  100  includes a postage and label server  120  owned and operated by the postage vendor, wherein the postage and label server  120  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&#39;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. 
     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&#39;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. 
     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&#39;s Outlook or QuickBooks as one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate. 
     In one example, Amazon&#39;s e-commerce system 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&#39;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&#39;s interaction. 
     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 . 
     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 . 
     In the preferred embodiment, systems and methods for generating the unique postage indicia are disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945 to Whitehouse, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/990,605, which were incorporated by reference in their entirety above. As noted above, these references describe, among other things, techniques whereby the postage vendor may generate 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. 
     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 ). 
     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. 
     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 . 
     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. 
     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.