Patent ID: 7461017

Claim:
A method of certifying jewelry items sold by jewelry retailers to customers, the method involving interactions between retailer terminals of the jewelry retailers and a central terminal of an entity independent of the jewelry retailers, the method comprising: (a) making available a website at the central terminal, wherein the website is accessible by the retailer terminals via an internet-based communications medium; (b) sending web page information from the central terminal for receipt by the retailer terminals, the web page information allowing for the formation of at least one graphical user interface at the retailer terminals; (c) receiving and storing at the central terminal respective jewelry-related information pertaining to respective ones of the jewelry items, the jewelry-related information being received from the retailer terminals subsequent to entry of at least some of the jewelry-related information by the jewelry retailers via the at least one graphical user interface at the retailer terminals, wherein the jewelry-related information includes image information regarding the jewelry items obtained from camera devices and information regarding at least one characteristic of the jewelry items entered by the jewelry retailers via user input devices associated with the retailer terminals of the jewelry retailers; (d) issuing certificates from the entity to be provided to the customers when the jewelry items are sold to the customers, wherein each respective certificate includes the respective jewelry-related information pertaining to the respective jewelry item sold, and wherein in relation to the sales additional information is received and stored at the central terminal, the additional information including certificate numbers corresponding to the issued certificates, customer-related information concerning the customers who purchased the jewelry items, and retailer-identity information concerning the jewelry retailers who sold the jewelry items purchased by the customers; (e) providing guarantees or warranties from the entity to the customers that the jewelry-related information provided on the certificates is accurate, wherein the entity in particular provides the guarantees or warranties in relation to those of the certificates that pertain to those of the jewelry items sold by authorized ones of the jewelry retailers; and (f) performing, by the entity, at least one additional action upon the entity detecting inaccurate information in at least one of the certificates based upon a comparison of customer-provided information with at least some of the information stored at the central terminal, the at least one additional action including at least one of: taking at least one enforcement action against at least one of the jewelry retailers; providing at least one refund to at least one of the customers; and providing at least one corrected certificate to at least one of the customers.