The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 13, 1990
Filed:
Oct. 17, 1988
Christopher B Wright, San Francisco, CA (US);
Stephen Bristow, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Wright Technologies, L.P., San Francisco, CA (US);
Abstract
An automated transaction system employs portable rate cards having embedded memories for storing rate information corresponding to different services, and a terminal which receives an inserted rate card and operates to calculate the value of an item requested at the terminal by a user using the information stored in the rate card, and to dispense the requested item having the calculated value. In the preferred system, the rate cards are used for different postal carriers or different services of one carrier, and the item dispensed is a printed postmark corresponding to the value calculated and the selected carrier or service. The system also employs portable program cards which store programs for generating waybill forms used by different postal carriers or different postal services. The waybill generating program of a program card inserted in the terminal controls the display of the corresponding waybill form on the terminal display and the input of information to be printed on the resulting waybill.