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:
Jul. 28, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 17, 2000
Ari Engelberg, Beverly Hills, CA (US);
Girish Venkat, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Mohan Ananda, Westlake Village, CA (US);
James Mcdermott, Santa Monica, CA (US);
Ari Engelberg, Beverly Hills, CA (US);
Girish Venkat, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Mohan Ananda, Westlake Village, CA (US);
James McDermott, Santa Monica, CA (US);
Stamps.com, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
An on-line value bearing item (VBI) printing system that includes one or more cryptographic modules and a secure database is disclosed. The secure database has the ability to recover data in case of a database failure and includes account balances and other information for all of the on-line value-bearing item system customers and is capable of preventing access by unauthorized users. Also, a secure communication network is in operation to prevent unauthorized access to the users' data stored in the database. A plurality of subsystems located on the server system side of the on-line VBI system provide services related to purchasing, accounting, and printing of VBI. Preferably, these services run on multiple server machines allowing the system to be scalable. The number of the servers can easily be increased to meet the growing needs of the subsystems as the numbers of transactions and users increase. The growing number of servers will not impact the performance of the on-line postage system, because the design of the on-line postage system allows for scalability.