Patent ID: 8543411

Claim:
A method for authenticating the contents of a package, comprising: reading a first value associated with the package, from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, using a first input device operatively connected to a processing system, the first value comprises a package identifier; reading a second value, associated with the package, from a machine-readable optical code, said second value being generated, at least based in part, on the package identifier; formulating a query by the processing system, the query including said first value and said second value; sending the query to a manufacturing database maintained by a manufacturer that produces the contents; receiving a response, to the query, from the manufacturing database indicating whether the contents of the package are authentic based on determining, via a processor whether the first value matches a corresponding third value in the database and whether the second value matches a corresponding fourth value in the database; and displaying text based on a computer monitor operatively connected to the processing system, the text based in part on the received response, the text including a description of the contents of the package.