Patent ID: 7284007

Claim:
A method of capturing data for use in a catalog comprising: capturing product data for a product according to a data model, the data model having one or more classes, each one of the one or more classes being defined by one or more categories, each of the one or more categories being defined by an attribute group having one or more attributes; and storing the captured product data in a product data system, the product data including: a system SKU product identifier that identifies the product within the product data system; a manufacturer SKU associated with the product assigned by the manufacturer that identifies the product within a product line of the manufacturer; at least one customer SKU assigned by the customer that identifies the product, each customer SKU being associated with a customer for which the product data is being stored for subsequent distribution to the customer, for use in a catalog, the customer being a manufacturer, retailer, or distributor of the product, thereby enabling the at least one customer to request customized distribution of product data for a particular product; a link from the product data to product information characterizing the product; and a customer identifier that identifies the customer to which the captured data is to be distributed, wherein the catalog is output to a user to display the captured data.