Patent ID: 7062509

Claim:
A computer system for generating standardized product data, the computer system comprising: a database operable to maintain data for a plurality of known products, each known product associated with a respective standardized product code; and a processing facility coupled to the database, the processing facility operable to receive raw data for an unidentified product from a plurality of diverse data sources each of which has its own separate identifier for the unidentified product, to compare the raw data for the unidentified product against the data for the plurality of known products, and if there is a match between the raw data for the unidentified product and the data for one of the plurality of known products, to assign the respective standardized product code of the matching known product to the unidentified products, wherein the raw data comprises a raw description for the unidentified product the data maintained in the database comprises a separate stored description for each of the plurality of known products, and the processing facility is operable to compare the raw description for the unidentified product against the stored descriptions for each of the plurality of known products.