Patent ID: 8079522

Claim:
A method, comprising: reading a barcode that has multiple parts including a first barcode part and a second barcode part, said reading using a computer based barcode reading device, wherein said first barcode part encodes a first set of information including plural different items of information, and said second barcode part encodes a second set of information including plural different items of information, wherein at least one of said plural different items of information within said first set of information represents the same information as at least one of said items of information within said second set of information, and where said second set of information also includes additional items of information beyond that in said first set of information; checking said second barcode part using a checking function on said computer based barcode reading device that operates to determine whether information that was obtained by reading said second barcode part represents valid information; based on said checking, using information from said second barcode part in said computer based barcode reading device when said checking indicates that said information obtained by reading said second barcode part is valid, and not using said information from said second barcode part in said computer based barcode reading device and instead using said information from said first barcode part in said computer based barcode reading device when said checking indicates that said information obtained by reading said second barcode part using said computer based barcode reading device is not valid; and when said using when said second barcode reading is indicated by said checking as not valid, further comprises using information based on reading said first barcode part to address a remote database over a channel, and receiving information from said database beyond that read from said first and second barcode parts, where said information from said database is concatenated along with information obtained from reading said first barcode part as part of the using when said second barcode reading is indicated by said checking as not valid, said information used to address not being a website address.