Patent ID: 7633376

Claim:
A computer comprising: a processor and a storage medium coupled with the processor, the storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, result in: the processor deriving a second Item Identifier (II) by applying an II rule to a first II that the processor has received from one or more Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags associated with an item; the processor matching a third II stored in a reference database to the second II; the processor deriving a second Declared Password (DP) by applying a DP rule to a first DP that the processor has received from the one or more RFID tags in a context of the processor receiving a question as to whether the first DP is regarded as proper or not for the first II; the processor generating an answer responsive to the question, the answer including that the first DP is regarded as proper for the first II if the second DP matches a first Associated Code (AC) stored in the reference database and associated with the third II, and the first AC has an AC value that belongs in a first subset of values that are regarded as proper for the third II, and not proper if the second DP does not match the AC or if the AC value belongs in a second subset of values that are regarded as not proper for the third II; and the processor transmitting the answer.