Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – For cost/price – Postage meter system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-17
2004-08-10
Cosimano, Edward R. (Department: 3629)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
For cost/price
Postage meter system
C713S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06775656
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for the automatic installation of a franking device as well as to an arrangement for the implementation of the method, particularly such a method and arrangement that are suitable for users of all types of mail processing systems, accounting or security modules, postage meter machines or PC franking devices, particularly for making a franking device available for use by a customer rapidly after purchase of the device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Before a postage meter machine can be used as intended, certain country-specific, carrier-specific and customer-specific data must usually still be stored in the postage meter machine by the dealer. Given postage meter machines of the type T1000 from Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co., a specific EPROM for such an installation is plugged in by the dealer or service technician (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,571 and European Application 762 335, method for modifying data of an electronic postage meter machine loaded into memory cells). A standard approach is to simultaneously store an identification number in a data center in order to be able to identify the franking device later when it calls in to the data center. The acquisition of customer data is also known from other devices.
The involvement of a remote data center is likewise already standard. U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,657 discloses loading data before an initialization of a postage meter machine. For changing advertising slogans, U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,554, discloses the use of a telephone communication. A date-dependent changing of the stamp (franking imprint) formats (with municipality stamp and with value stamp) that was loaded by modem at an earlier point in time is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,849. U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,109 discloses loading data banks, with a standard data bank serving the purpose of storing data in the form of a data set that is periodically communicated from the postage meter machine to the center. The data set is then updated in the data center and is then returned to the postage meter machine updated (downloading).
Following an initialization, European Application 780 803 discloses making news or carrier-specific advertising available from a data center when there is a request for this in the data center. To this end, the customer must have previously entered into a contract with the service provider or operator of the data center.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,660 discloses a method for changing the configuration of the postage meter machine, wherein the postage meter machine is switched from the operating mode into a configuration mode with a suitable input via a keyboard, and a new meter type number can be entered that corresponds to the desired number of features. The postage meter machine generates a code for the communication with the computer of the data center and the entry of the identification data and the new meter type number in the aforementioned computer, which likewise generates a corresponding code for communication and input into the postage meter machine, wherein the two codes are compared. Given agreement between the two codes, the postage meter machine is configured and switched into the operating mode. As a result, the data center always has precise entries of the currently set meter type for the corresponding postage meter machine. In this method, however, security is dependent only on the encryption of the transmitted code.
European Application 388 840 discloses a comparable security technique for setting a postage meter machine in order to clean it of data without having to transport the postage meter machine to a representative of the manufacturer. Again, security is only dependent on the encryption of the transmitted code.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatic installation and an appertaining arrangement, particularly a corresponding franking means. The customer who has acquired a pre-initialized franking device from a dealer should be able to place the franking device completely into operation without having to call a customer service representative or service technician and without having to visit the post office.
This object is achieved in the inventive method and apparatus wherein, during manufacture, machine data are entered into the franking device by a known means when the franking device is pre-initialized, with the following steps being inventively conducted.
A mirror data set, corresponding to the machine data stored in the franking device is stored in the data centered allocated to a numerical code.
Acquired customer data of a purchased franking means are communicated to the data center.
The customer data are stored in the data center allocated to the numerical code.
A machine-specific and customer-specific data set is made available in the data center allocated to the numerical code, this data set including at least data for a specific stamp with temporary and local data.
The data set is communicated to the franking location (franking device or the operator thereof) after reception of corresponding request data or inputs.
The machine data are the serial number and/or identification number.
Request data are already generated when the franking device implements the loading of a credit preceding its use. It is advantageous for the franking device additionally to implement—during the loading event—an accounting of the desired service of the data update for an installation of stamp content data.
The data set communicated for automatic installation can contain a customer-specific advertising slogan or an advertising slogan selected from a number of advertising slogans, and also can include customer data when this has been agreed upon at the time of purchase.
The customer data (for example place of utilization, slogan request, service/maintenance contract) are communicated in the framework of the setup of a first communication by postcard, by telephone or a comparable communication, directly or, if necessary, via a dealer, to the data center. The data center is preferably fashioned as a first, specific service center (data update server) that, as needed, can also communicate other configuration data and postage fee table data. This same data center or a second data center can be fashioned as a reloading center for credit. Usually, the second (telepostage) data center communicates the credit required for franking in the form of reload data.
The same data center or a third data center can be fashioned as a reloading center for fee tables and for further information.
The data center has a transmission arrangement in order to supply customer-specific data sets. The communication of the data set then ensues by transmission from the data carrier.
A customer-specific data set thus can be supplied to the customer via a chip card or some other modern medium.
The method and arrangement can be used to particular advantage to reduce the cost or maintain a competitive cost of machines that a dealer distributes. The time from the order/purchase of the customer up to the first franking event can be drastically reduced. Due to the transmission of data for a country-specific value stamp image, the country versions can be replaced by a single version, for example by a Europe version.
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Gettwart Klaus
Pauschinger Dieter
Turner Olaf
Cosimano Edward R.
Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co.
Schiff & Hardin LLP
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