Method and system for facilitating shipping via a third-party payment service

US7844497B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• eBay Inc. · US

Inventors

• Brian Andrew Phillips · San Francisco, US
• Chad Hurley · Palo Alto, US
• Greg Cervelli · San Jose, US
• Ki Ching Wong · Sunnyvale, US
• Paul Arthur Martin · Menlo Park, US
• Steve S. Chen · San Jose, US
• Yu PAN · Lo Wu, CN

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 31, 2003
• Grant date: Nov 30, 2010
• Expiry date: Sep 8, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q40/12
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An integrated shipping scheme enables users of a third-party payment service to facilitate shipment of packages via a shipping vendor. Web pages corresponding to a web site hosted by the third-party payment service enable a sender to enter ship to: information, while ship from: information may be automatically gathered or manually entered by the sender. The sender is also enabled to enter shipment options, such as package size and weight. Corresponding shipping information is generated and sent “behind the scenes” to a selected shipping vendor. The shipping vendor processes the shipping information, and returns shipment data, including data to generate a shipping label. A web page containing the shipping label is then generated and served to a client operated by the sender, enabling the shipping label to be printed out. At the same time, electronic payment transfer operations are performed to effectively transfer payment from the sender directly to the shipping vendor via the third-party payment service in a manner that is transparent to both the sender and the shipping vendor.