System and method for generating personalized postage indicia

Abstract

A system and method for printing a postage meter stamp, including a desired postage amount and a personalized postage indicia, onto a piece of mail. A user takes a postal storage device to the Post Office in order to obtain a replenishment of the amount of postage stored within the postage storage device. A desired amount of postage is entered into the storage device by a postal employee through a processor-based system. The user is then able to access this stored postage at the user's location through a complementary processor-based system. The user is also able to create or to select one of a variety of graphical configurations of postage indicia to be imprinted as the postage meter stamp on a piece of mail.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation of co-pending, commonly assigned, patent application Ser. No. 10 / 082,398 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE POSTAGE INDICIA,” filed Feb. 25, 2002, which itself is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 09 / 491,949 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE POSTAGE INDICIA,” filed Jan. 26, 2000, which itself is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 08 / 965,015 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRINTING MULTIPLE POSTAGE INDICIA,” filed Nov. 5, 1997 and now issued as Pat. No. 6,208,980, which itself is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 08 / 561,417 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRINTING POSTAGE INDICIA DIRECTLY ON DOCUMENTS,” filed Nov. 21, 1995 and now issued as Pat. No. 5,801,944, which itself is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser. No. 08 / 540,658 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRINTING PERSONALIZED POSTAGE INDICIA ON GREETING CAR...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a touch memory utility (“TMU”) button, manufactured by, for example, Dallas Semiconductor, Dallas, Tex., is utilized for transferring the purchased amount of postage from the U.S. Post Office to the processor based system at the user's office. Typically, a user will physically take the TMU button to (or purchase from) a U.S. Post Office location, that Post Office having a system complementary to the one installed on the customer's PC. A postal worker will interface the TMU button with the system residing at the Post Office in order to replenish the amount of postage programmed within the button in an amount requested and purchased by the customer. The customer may also select from a variety of postage meter stamp designs that the Post Office can input into the portable memory device. The user may also call a number (an authorized Post Office telephone number) and have the Post Office transfer the required amount of postage by modem.

[0027] In addition, the E-STAMP program can be used to encode a variety of information within the postage meter stamp using symbol technology. Such information would be machine readable and can be used to identify meter stamp forgeries. The E-STAMP program may also encode a variety of information into a bar code that is printed separately from the postage meter stamp. For example, the E-STAMP could automatically produce ZIP+4 coding and print the appropriate PostNet bar code on the envelope. Currently, a customer who prints the appropriate PostNet bar code on letters only has to pay 29.5¢ per meter stamp rather than 32¢ per stamp. Thus use of the E-STAMP program is not only more convenient than a conventional postage meter but it can also save the user money on postage.

Problems solved by technology

Nevertheless, a postage meter residing within an office is not all that convenient and efficient as it may first seem to be.

First, a postage meter may not be purchased, but must be rented.

For a small business, this can be quite an expense to incur year after year.

Thus, in addition to the monthly rent, the servicing and replenishing of the meter requires the time and expense of at least one employee to take the meter to the U.S. Post Office to have it checked.

Of course, this procedure results in down-time wherein the postage meter is not available to the business for the application of postage to outgoing mail.

In addition, because of the monthly rent and the size of these devices, it is generally not practical for businesses to have more than one postage meter to alleviate this down-time.

Without a doubt, this is not a sufficient solution.

Additionally, it is difficult for a business to keep track of stamp inventories and stamps are subject to pilferage and degeneration from faulty handling.

Moreover, increases in the postal rate (which seem to occur every three years) and the requirement for variable amounts of postage for international mail, makes the purchase of stamps even more inefficient and uneconomical.

Because of different postage zones, different classes of mail, different postage required by international mail and the inefficiency of maintaining stamps within an office, it is important to have an automatic postage system, such as the aforementioned inefficient and relatively expensive postage meter.

However, the traditional postage meter does not allow the individual or business to take advantage of commemorative stamps designed and printed by the Post Office.

Although individuals often purchase and collect various editions of commemorative stamps, businesses will generally forego buying commemorative stamps because the large variety of stamps available would only complicate their stamp inventory.

One major problem with any system in which a portable memory is used for controlling available values in a computer system, such as the amount of postage available to a user, is the maintenance of strict controls on the “filling” of the memory.

Another problem facing any CPU based system with a portable memory to store postage is that the system should optimally interface with a user friendly operating environment that is flexible and can be coupled to other programs such as a word processing or graphics program.

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