Patent ID: 8489576

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a client device adapted to receive a traceable object that includes tracer information identifying a business entity associated with the origin of the traceable object, to perform one or more of a plurality of different object-related actions using the traceable object, wherein a unique action code is associated with each of the plurality of different object-related actions, wherein each unique action code is associated with a particular type of the different object-related actions, to store, for each object-related action that has been performed using the traceable object, a record that includes object usage information and the tracer information identifying the business entity, wherein the object usage information includes the unique action code for the object-related action that has been performed by the client device using the traceable object, and to send the object usage information and an identification of the business entity from the tracer information to a server; and the server adapted to receive and store the object usage information.