Patent ID: 8249954

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by one or more computers associated with a third party validation entity, from an owner of an item that has moved through one or more nodes of a supply chain, from a vendor of the item, or from a potential purchaser of the item, identification information that uniquely identifies the item; in response to receiving the identification information, transmitting, by the third party validation entity, a request to a subset of the nodes of the supply chain for event data associated with the uniquely identified item; receiving, by the third party validation entity, the requested event data associated with the uniquely identified item from the subset of the nodes; performing, by the third party validation entity, a third party validation of an attribute of the item using the received event data, wherein a result of the validation specifies whether the received event data reflects that an attribute of the item is valid, and wherein the result excludes information that identifies the owner of the item; and providing, by the third party validation entity, to the owner, to the vendor, or to the potential purchaser, a certificate that references the result of the validation.