Patent ID: 7792863

Claim:
Computer readable storage media which contains a program of instructions which instructions when executed by a computer program under operator control perform the following method of Harmonized Tariff Schedule (“HTS”) classification for assigning each of a plurality of imported products to their correct HTS code using a computer system having one or more physical storage devices: creating and storing on the one or more physical storage devices a decision-tree customs classification database containing a plurality of commodity groups at a top level that each describe a category of products, a plurality of HTS codes at a bottom level that each relate to an applicable tariff rate on a type of product, and one or more intermediate levels that each describe a sub-set of products and that link each of the commodity groups at the top level to a plurality of the HTS codes at the bottom level through a top-down decision tree; creating a function code database for a business purpose unrelated to HTS commodity group classification or tariff computation and storing it on the one or more physical storage devices, the function code database containing a plurality of unique function codes, each indicative of a product function and each mapped to a sub-set of the products that perform the function indicated by the function code; creating and storing on the one or more physical storage devices a function-code-to-commodity group database that maps each of the function codes to one of the commodity groups; and for each of the products using the computer system and the physical storage devices through a user interface: identifying the function code of the product based on the function code to which the product is mapped in the function code database; identifying the commodity group that corresponds to the identified function code based on the commodity group to which the identified function code is mapped in the function-code-to-commodity group database; selecting each intermediate level in the top-down decision tree that is associated with the identified commodity group that best describes the product until arriving at an HTS code at the bottom level of the decision-tree customs classification database; and assigning the arrived-at HTS code at the bottom level of the decision-tree customs classification database to the product.