Patent ID: 7845553

Claim:
A data management system comprising: a data store for storing at least one entry, the entry including (i) information associated with an item, and (ii) information about a security feature associated with that item; an authenticator operable to access the data store in response to a request from a remote reader and including (i) a reader validator to authenticate the remote reader, the authenticated remote reader used to authenticate the item and the reader validator authenticating the remote reader by ascertaining the identity and location of the remote reader and by verifying that the remote reader uses a proper encryption key and protocols for accessing the data store, and (ii) a security feature validator to authenticate a security feature read by the remote reader and adapted to parse the request for an algorithm identification code that identifies an algorithm for reading and transforming the security feature, the security feature validator also operable to issue an authenticity confirmation when a security feature is successfully validated; and a port for coupling the remote reader and the authenticator to enable requests to be transmitted from the remote reader to the authenticator and responses to be transmitted from the authenticator to the remote reader.