Patent ID: 6950024

Claim:
A method for recovering lost articles of jewelry, comprising: compiling a database of names, addresses and phone numbers of jewelry owners who subscribe to the jewelry recovery service, and maintaining said database for access by a service provider; assigning a series of unique alpha-numeric codes to each subscriber, each code corresponding to said subscriber, and maintaining the codes in the database to allow said service provider to cross-reference each code to its corresponding subscriber without knowledge of what jewelry said subscriber owns; micro-engraving print including a toll free phone number and said unique alpha-numeric code to one of said articles of jewelry, said micro-engraved print conveying a prompt to a finder of the lost article of jewelry to call said phone number and report said code; providing a live operator at said service provider to answer calls from each finder of lost articles of jewelry who call said phone number, said live operator thereupon receiving the alpha-numeric code from the finder and querying said database with the alpha-numeric code to determine the jewelry owner; providing a representative of said service provider to contact the jewelry owner of said lost article of jewelry and to mediate transfer of said lost article of jewelry from the finder to the owner.