Method and system for administering compliance with international shipping requirements

Abstract

There are provided methods and systems for facilitating international shipment of goods that enable centralized control of both the establishment of and any changes to international shipping requirements. Users can conveniently query the system through remote terminals. Requirement information is provided in a user-useful and friendly manner including matrices of core requirements relating to all shipments and country specific requirements relating to specified origination and / or destination countries. Compliance testing is provided by which a user can evaluate a particular international shipment for compliance with requirements particular to that shipment.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 891,163 filed Jun. 25, 2001.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for administering data in a distributed user environment and more particularly to systems and methods for administering international shipping requirements in a distributed user environment.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]International shipping requires compliance with extensive, country-specific requirements. Countries may regulate such specifics as: packaging, marking, addressing and a multitude of other factors associated with shipping across jurisdictional borders. Each country has its own, individual set of requirements which may or may not be the same or similar to those of other countries. Failure to comply with shipping requirements may expose a shipper, for example an international company, to extensive fines and / or a moratorium on that company's ability to sh...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]In accordance with the present invention there are provided new and improved methods and systems for facilitating compliance with international shipping requirements. Such methods and systems provide for simplified and controllable development, distribution, updating and testing of compliance with documented requirements in a distributed environment.

Problems solved by technology

Failure to comply with shipping requirements may expose a shipper, for example an international company, to extensive fines and / or a moratorium on that company's ability to ship into or out of a particular country.

In some instances, failure to comply with shipping requirements may even expose a company to criminal charges.

However, prior to the advent of the present invention, no good method or system was known to applicant for coordinating, distributing and updating the compliance requirements associated with the international shipment of products.

In applicant's experience, systems for facilitating compliance with requirements for the international shipment of products suffer from significant drawbacks.

In particular, they tend to involve the use of lengthy, often outdated or obsolete, uncontrolled collections of documents and guidelines.

Applicant's experience has been that such deficient systems make compliance with international shipping requirements difficult at best and may place organizations, particularly large organizations, at risk for penalties for failure to comply.

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