Patent ID: 8099314

Claim:
A commodity control system comprising: a computer processor; information storage means configured to store a commodity control byte data for each of a plurality of commodities, the commodity control byte data comprising a commodity identification information for identifying the commodity, manufacturer information associated with a plurality of manufacturers that have manufactured the commodity and client information associated with a plurality of clients that have acquired the commodity; communication means for communicating with an external device; and information processing means for controlling the operation of each of the means, wherein the information processing means is configured to: a) correlate commodity identification information with manufacturer information associated with one of the plurality of manufactures to receive correlated information from a manufacturer terminal through the communication means, b) collate the received commodity identification information with the commodity identification information stored in the storage means, c) specify, when the received commodity identification information has been matched with the commodity identification information stored in the storage means as a result of the collation, the commodity identified by the received identification information, d) extend, via the computer processor, in a linear fashion, the commodity control byte data associated with the specified commodity by adding the received manufacturer information to the commodity control byte data associated with the specified commodity and store the commodity control byte data to the storage means, e) correlate commodity identification information for identifying the commodity with client information associated with one of the plurality of clients to receive correlated information from a client terminal through the communication means, f) collate the received commodity identification information with the commodity identification information stored in the storage means, g) specify, when the received commodity identification information has been matched with the commodity identification information stored in the storage means as a result of the collation, the commodity identified by the received identification information, and h) extend, via the computer processor, in a linear fashion, the commodity control byte data associated with the specified commodity by adding the received client information to the commodity control byte data associated with the specified commodity and store the commodity control byte data to the storage means.