t, m w i cry
Contents
1. plary embodiments may be configured to support communi cations over the network s 28 30 0073 As alluded to above the apparatus 200 may include a user interface 218 The user interface 218 may be in com munication with the processing circuitry 210 to receive an indication of a user input at the user interface 218 and or to provide an audible visual mechanical or other output to the user As such the user interface 218 may include for example a keyboard a mouse a joystick a display a touch screen a microphone a speaker and or other input output mechanisms 0074 Inaccordance with certain exemplary embodiments of this disclosure the apparatus 200 is or otherwise comprises the above discussed portal apparatus such that reference numeral 200 designates the portal apparatus In accordance with these exemplary embodiments one of the modules 210 of the portal apparatus 200 may configured for providing the Registration Website and another of the modules 210 of the portal apparatus 200 may configured for providing the Rela tionship Website such that reference numerals 210 designate Registration and Relationship Website modules Notwith standing the Registration and Relationship Websites may be provided together as a module or may be provided by a series modules and or portal apparatuses or in any other suitable manner 0075 One aspect of this disclosure is the provision of the portal apparatus 200 wherein the portal appa2. tively the recipient 14 may edit or otherwise complete fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 before selecting the submit button or icon associated with the Product Regis tration Webpage 21 0049 As an alternative to using a mobile device 16 such as a smart phone to scan and decode the symbology 20 associated with their product 10 the recipient 14 may utilize the text version 42 of the shortened URL that is typically adjacent to the symbology in order to carry out their part of the registration process For example the recipient 14 may manually type the text version 42 of the shortened URL into any suitable computerized device that is executing a web browser software program Accordingly the device 16 may be generally characterized as being the suitable computerized device In response to the recipient 14 manually typing the text version 42 of the shortened URL into the suitable com puterized device that is executing the web browser software program the process may proceed substantially as discussed above As an alternative to using a computerized mobile device 16 or other suitable computerized device as discussed above and for maximizing accessibility a recipient 14 e g perhaps an elderly or disabled consumer that may not have may not be able to use or may not want to use a computerized device may use a telephone to call a Call Center For example and during the telephone call the recipient 14 may read the text
3. bology further comprises the computing system associated with the provider generating a two dimensional matrix code symbology 20 The method according to claim 15 wherein the com puting system associated with the provider determining the product specific identifier further comprises the computing system associated with the provider determining the product specific identifier selected from the group consisting of a serial number for the product and a model number for the product based at least in part on the URL 21 The method according to claim 15 wherein the com puting system associated with the provider receiving the per sonal information associated with the recipient further com prises the computing system associated with the provider receiving the personal information associated with the recipi ent comprising an address of the recipient for communicat ing with the recipient 22 The method according to claim 15 further comprising the computing system associated with the provider commu nicating with the recipient at least partially based on the personal information associated with the recipient and the product specific identifier corresponding to the product 10 US 2014 0372325 Al generating a symbology comprising a single decodable uniform resource locator URL for at least indirectly accessing a website comprising a first webpage wherein the symbology is configured to be decoded by a com puting dev
4. database 18 with any other pertinent information at any suitable point during the provider s manufacturing or later processes such as at any suitable time before and or after the recipient 14 participates in the registration process 0030 A recipient 14 of a product 10 may use a computer ized mobile device 16 having an optical feature e g module to capture an image of the registration related symbology 20 associated with the product 10 they have purchased or other wise obtained The optical feature capturing the image of the symbology may comprise a camera module or other suitable optical device module of the recipient s computerized mobile device 16 e g smart phone cell phone The mobile device 16 may decode the captured image of the symbology 20 ina conventional manner such as through execution of suitable software module s In accordance with one aspect of this disclosure the information decoded from the symbology 20 comprises the URL e g shortened URL wherein the URL e g shortened URL serves as a product identifier and or optionally another product identifier is embedded in the sym bology In response to the decoding of the URL from the captured image of the symbology 20 the mobile device 16 typically automatically accesses the portal apparatus or more specifically the Product Registration Website provided by the portal apparatus such as by way of the web browser module or the like of the mobile device 16 Reit
5. the computerized look up table or the like Additional information may also be automatically uploaded to the Prod uct Registration Website such as name address city state and zip code information from the recipient s mobile device 16 if an auto fill function on the recipient s mobile device e g web browser is enabled This automatic uploading of data drastically reduces time and data input errors while increasing operational efficiency as data feed may be real time into the CRM system of registration record Automati cally obtaining data in this way also seeks to ensure that the provider e g company has accurate product tracking infor mation for consumer contact opportunities not limited to service flashes and potential product recall notifications 0036 The data for products registered online as discussed above may be processed in real time and the data may be immediately passed through to the CRM system of registra tion record This process caters to recipients e g consumers or customers by allowing for the usage of current technolo gies and it also addresses data collection needs of the pro vider company so that the company may in turn better fulfill consumer needs In one aspect of this disclosure previously used multiple step processes and redundant actions are streamlined into a consumer friendly function that provides more efficient CRM input yielding greater amounts of ana lytics data for use in
6. 216 PROCESSOR 2 FIG 11 Dec 18 2014 apparatus receiving the recipient s personal information from the web browser of the recipient s mobile device at least partially in response to sending the webpage The method may further comprise the portal apparatus associating the recipient s personal information with the information from the provider about the product identified by the decodable product identifier for product registration purposes 0006 Thereafter the provider may follow up with the recipient comprising using at least some of the associated personal and product information for communicating with the recipient Also for each recipient a unique relationship account may be established and associated with all of the recipient s registered products such as for enhancing the relationship between the provider and the recipient In this regard subsequent receipt of the above discussed URL from the recipient may result in another webpage being provided to the recipient wherein the another webpage has associated therewith information about and or tailored to one or more of e g all of the recipient s registered products 0007 The foregoing presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of this disclosure This summary is not an extensive overview and is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the inven tion or to delineate the scope of the invent
7. ISTER PRODUCT URL WITH URL OF 130 RELATIONSHIP WEBSITE 150 DOES ASSOCIATE RECIPIENT HAVE REGISTERD PRODUCT ACCOUNT FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH RELATIONSHIP WEBSITE ACCOUNT 135 145 ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIP ACCOUNT FOR RECIPIENT 140 FIG 9 Ol 314 10110111114 11111111101 50 NVA Ball SIAO TIVM S4000 11100194 1100015 8 15118055322 01 GV 1 iLNVINOdWI 51 9119155311 11484 1178 IMON 1040 01 33H DID 30011 11 31 01113 ID AN 7 SAND MAN IHI SASN 10113911710 SHH 11101 83110 ALD NI 11113431 11 SINVLATINd 4 MOHS AL 131 NO 00 10 0 7 0 3121 11 111005 3 SAATI AE LIN 7005 111131 80 181 NOA AYS TIIM MON 01 200 0 ONY ASYA ISYA SAI ASATRO 13 11 LVM 7731 07 0706 111 05131 H9 GNI 03 1 43131 01310 S1 131711 10 111 1 11 1 1 141 SINOS 111100 11 MID 10001011 AMOI 130011 ONY 2210035 31005300 5101100114 ANH 10 15 9 HMO 08 1 US 2014 0372325 A1 Dec 18 2014 Sheet 10 of 11 Patent Application Publication Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 11 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 200 TN USER INTERFACE 218 MODULE 210 MODULE 210 210 0000 1 20 COMMUNICTION INTERFACE
8. US 20140372325A1 2 Patent Application Publication o Pub No US 2014 0372325 Al Dec 18 2014 Related U S Application Data Continuation of application No 13 869 527 filed on Apr 24 2013 Provisional application No 61 637 536 filed on Apr 24 2012 Publication Classification Int Cl 060 0 2006 01 U S Cl 200008 6060 30 012 2013 01 USPE ot 705 302 ABSTRACT 43 Pub Date 63 60 51 52 57 Regarding a product that is provided by a provider and received by a recipient registration of the product and fol lowing up with the recipient may be facilitated by way of web based symbology driven product registration systems and methods as United States Zambrana et al SYSTEM METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR REGISTERING PRODUCTS AND PROMOTING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS Applicant Electrolux Home Products Inc Charlotte NC US Inventors Robert Erik Zambrana Charlotte NC US Deonn Crumley Baker Huntersville NC US James Steven Evans Winterville NC US Assignee Electrolux Home Products Inc Appl No 14 476 501 Filed Sep 3 2014 54 71 72 73 21 22 Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 1 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 FIG Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 2 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 FIG 2 Patent Application Publicat
9. a second webpage instead of the first webpage such that the second webpage is provided to the web browser of the computing device associated with the recipient in response to any subsequent receipt of the same URL from the computing device associated with the recipi ent wherein the second webpage is different than the first webpage 16 The method according to claim 15 further comprising the computing system associated with the provider receiving the URL a subsequent time after registering the product and amending the lookup reference and in response to receiving the URL the subsequent time
10. as by way of sending the data in the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 and any additional associated data to 8 local database 32 e g such as the CRM computer database which may be managed by any suitable database manager such as SAP Addition ally the data in the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 and any additional associated data may be sent to a remote databases 34 such as for control and verification and or backup purposes Additionally a notification 36 may be sent to the recipient 14 to confirm that their registration has been completed and or for providing any other suitable infor mation e g for soliciting extended service warranty busi ness As schematically shown in FIG 7 the notification 36 may be a confirming email e g with the email comprising the data in the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 and any other suitable associated data that may be sent to the recipient 14 e g the recipient s mobile device 16 over the second network 30 to confirm that their registration has been completed The sending of the data to the databases 32 34 and the sending of the notification 36 may be facilitated through the execution of one or more software modules associated with the Product Registration Website 0047 Regarding the local and remote databases 32 34 the database 18 of FIG 1 may serve as either one of the local and remote databases 32 34 Alternatively one or both of the lo
11. by the printer 23 located at the facility and the sym bologies 20 are respectively associated with products 10 and associated user manuals at the facility 12 all prior to the recipient 14 participating in the registration process As one example the symbologies 20 may be respectively printed onto adhesive backed labels that are respectively stuck onto the products 10 at the facility 12 all prior to the recipient 14 participating in the registration process Accordingly in FIGS 1 2 5 and 6 each feature identified by reference number 20 may be characterized as being illustrative of an adhesive backed label that includes a symbology printed thereon although any other suitable methods and features may be used for associating the symbologies or the like with the respective products 10 Typically for each product 10 its associated unique symbology may also be included in the user manual for the product 0027 The above discussed software module s executing on the computer 24 may be incorporated into the existing batch process e g fed by an Excel brand spreadsheet scripted into Loftware brand enterprise label and print man agement software module s although any other suitable fea ture s e g software module s may be utilized In addition the script may go through a series of GET POST param eters and or a URL shortening script The symbologies 20 may be respectively associated with the products by being mounted to the
12. cal and remote databases 32 34 may be in addition to the database 18 wherein the local and remote databases 32 34 may be respectively associated with the computer 24 and the server 26 or the databases may be in any other suitable location 0048 Insummary regarding one aspect of this disclosure if a recipient s mobile device 16 has a web browser module or the like with an enabled auto fill module and the mobile Dec 18 2014 FIG 9 in block 100 the portal apparatus receives at least the shortened URL such as from a computerized mobile device 16 or in any other suitable manner as discussed above 0054 In some embodiments processing control is trans ferred from block 100 to block 105 and in block 105 a determination is made by the portal apparatus as to whether registration has already been completed such as in the man ner described above for the product identified by the URL If product registration has not occurred for the URL received at block 100 processing control is transferred to block 110 If product registration has already occurred for the URL received at block 100 processing control is transferred to block 120 In block 110 the portal apparatus sends the Prod uct Registration Webpage 21 FIGS 3 and 7 of the Product Registration Website to the computerized device 16 from which the short URL was received at block 100 In contrast in block 120 the portal apparatus sends the Relationship Webpage FIG 10 of
13. ctive short URL wherein each product 10 may be US 2014 0372325 Al DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0017 Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure are described below and illustrated in the accompanying figures in which like numerals refer to like parts The embodiments described provide examples and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention Other embodiments and modifications and improvements of the described embodi ments will occur to those skilled in the art and all such other embodiments modifications and improvements are within the scope of the present invention 0018 Referring in greater detail to the drawings FIG 1 schematically illustrates aspects of systems and methods for registering products 10 in accordance with a first embodi ment of this disclosure The products 10 may be provided by a provider and the provider may be a company having a facility 12 e g amanufacturing facility e g factory pack aging facility distribution facility and or any other suitable type of facility from which the products originate and or through which the products pass For example and not for the purpose of limiting the scope of this disclosure in FIG 1 a series of the products 10 at the facility 12 is schematically shown as traveling along an assembly line conveyor system or the like whereas another product 10 is proximate a recipi ent 14 e g customer In FIG 1 both the recipient 14 and the product 10 proxi
14. dentifier are coded and embed ded into each symbology 20 The URL is for at least indirectly accessing a portal apparatus comprising a module that is in the form of and or for providing a Product Registration Web site e g a Product Registration Webpage 21 FIGS 3 and 7 of the Product Registration Website Optionally the URL may alternatively or also be for at least indirectly accessing a module that is in the form of and or for providing a Relation ship Website e g a Relationship Webpage FIG 10 of the Relationship Website as will be discussed in greater detail below with reference to FIG 9 The portal apparatus may be may consist essentially of or may comprise the server 26 the computer 24 and or any combination of these or other suit able features such that the Product Registration and Rela tionship Websites may be hosted by the server 26 the com puter 24 and or by any other suitable features 0024 Inthe first version of the first embodiment the same URL may be encoded into each of the symbologies 20 whereas each symbology has a different unique product iden tifier encoded thereinto In this first version the product iden tifiers may be used to respectively identify the registration records of the database 18 wherein each registration record typically contains numerous fields for data 0025 Ina second version of the first embodiment each symbology 20 may hold e g be decodable to provide only a respe
15. ds compatibility and or manual entry As at least allude to above Loftware brand enterprise label and Dec 18 2014 device is equipped for e g has one or more modules for scanning and decoding symbologies 20 then the recipient 14 may scan the subject symbology with their mobile device 16 and may substantially immediately thereafter select i e actuate or activate a submit button or icon associated with the Product Registration Webpage 21 to complete their part of the registration process Accordingly in one aspect of this disclosure the portal apparatus is operative for associating the recipient s personal information with information from the provider about the product 10 identified by the product identifier e g the short URL for product registration pur poses without the recipient inputting at least some of one or more of the information from the provider and the recipient s personal information For example the portal apparatus may be operative for associating the recipient s personal informa tion with information from the provider about the product 10 identified by the product identifier e g the short URL for product registration purposes without the recipient inputting any of the recipient s personal information into the Product Registration Webpage 21 and or without the recipient input ting any of the information from the provider about the prod uct 10 into the Product Registration Webpage 21 Alterna
16. e the base prod uct data e g base product data modules may be located at one or more of the databases 18 computers 24 or servers 26 of FIG 1 The base product data may be processed and located in any suitable manner 0040 Referring to FIG 5 and in accordance with the first and second embodiments the base product data which may be located at or obtained from for example one or more of the electronic devices shown in FIG 4 is used in the generating of e g via execution of one or more software modules the symbologies 20 that are to be associated with the products 10 at the facility 12 More specifically a tagging process e g labeling process is used for creating tags e g decal or labels 40 that include the symbologies 20 Even more specifically in accordance with the first and second embodiments script ing e g execution of one or more software modules at the print server e g the print server for the printer 23 FIG 1 combines product information variables URL s and inte grates generation of the symbologies 20 at some point in the labeling process used by the facility 12 e g factory Script ing at the print server level allows for variable data printing of custom generated symbologies 20 on the product identifica tion labels 40 Also for each label 40 a text version 42 of the shortened URL contained in the symbology 20 may be printed on the label to accommodate for any accessibility concerns backwar
17. e 18 and is associated with the relationship account associated with short URL that was received at block 100 0063 Incertain embodiments of this disclosure the portal apparatus 15 operative for facilitating intentional involvement of a provider e g company in its engagement with recipi ents 14 e g consumers such as customers over an extended period of time such as for promoting an exchange of com munications through the Relationship Website wherein the communications via the Relationship Website may include promotions of future purchases cross sell offers targeted Dec 18 2014 face 216 may be configured to enable the device e g the mobile device 16 computer 24 and server 26 on which the apparatus is implemented to communicate with one or move other computing devices In this regard the communication interface 216 may include one or more interface mechanisms for enabling communication with other devices and or net works As such the communication interface 216 may include for example an antenna or multiple antennas and supporting hardware and or software for enabling communi cations with a wireless communication network e g a cel lular network WLAN and or the like and or a communica tion modem or other hardware software for supporting communication via cable digital subscriber line DSL USB Fire Wire Ethernet or other wireline networking meth ods As such the communication interface 216 of some exem
18. e input and output devices processors memories and software module s e g computer readable mediums having computer executable instructions for per forming one or more of the steps described herein Simi larly each computerized look up table computer database or software module may be in the form of one or more comput erized look up tables computer databases or software mod ule s and vice versa 0067 As a more specific example FIG 11 illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus 200 that is representative of apparatuses that may be respectively implemented on each of the above discussed servers computers or computerized devices e g the mobile device 16 computer 24 and server 26 in accordance with some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure It will be appreciated that the components devices or elements illustrated in and described with respect to FIG 11 below may not be mandatory and thus some may be omitted in certain embodiments Additionally some embodi ments may include further or different components devices or elements beyond those illustrated in and described with respect to FIG 11 0068 In some exemplary embodiments the apparatus 200 may include processing circuitry 210 that is configurable to US 2014 0372325 Al 0059 In block 140 the first time a recipient 14 registers a product 10 using the portal apparatus as discussed above the recipient is assigned a unique relationship account number for us
19. e may be in combination with incorporated into and or characterized as the CRM computer database e g the look up table may be integrated directly into the CRM computer database 0029 The registration records in the database 18 e g the look up table and or CRM data may be updated with short URLs and or product identifiers and associated product reg istration information e g product serial and model number in real time with the creation of the product identifies and symbologies 20 or the updating may occur periodically in a batch process typically prior to the recipient 14 participating in the registration process For example the model serial numbers and product identifiers e g short URLs may be contained in the database 18 e g CRM computer database upon shipment of the associated products 10 from the factory 12 wherein the model and serial numbers are respectively associated with the corresponding product identifiers for later pairing with other information as discussed in greater detail below That is the registration records contained in the com puter database 18 and or any other suitable location typically contain the model and serial numbers respectively associated with short URLs and or any other suitable product identifiers for facilitating the registration process discussed in greater detail below The provider e g company or any other suit able provider may further populate the registration records in the
20. e with the portal apparatus e g the Relationship Web site and that unique relationship account number is associ ated with the recipient in the database 18 In block 145 each time a recipient 14 with a relationship account number reg isters a product 10 using the portal apparatus their relation ship account number is associated with the product associated with the short URL received any at block 100 Processing control is transferred from block 145 to block 150 although the operations of block 150 may occur at any suitable time that may be simultaneous with or after the operations of block 130 0060 At block 150 in the database 18 or more specifi cally in the registration record associated with the short URL received at block 100 the field containing the long URL for the Registration Webpage of the Registration Website is edited so that field contains the long URL for the Relationship Webpage of the Relationship Website rather than long URL for the Registration Webpage of the Registration Website Alternatively other suitable measures may be taken at block 150 so that going forward when the short URL associated with an already registered product 10 is received at block 100 the short URL redirects to the URL for the Relationship Webpage of the Relationship Website e g processing con trol is transferred from block 100 to block 120 Processing control is transferred from block 145 or 150 to block 155 0061 In block 155 the
21. erating from above the portal apparatus and its Product Registration and Rela tionship Websites may be hosted by the server 26 the com puter 24 or in any other suitable manner More specifically and in accordance with the first embodiment the portal appa ratus and its Product Registration and Relationship Websites US 2014 0372325 Al identified by a respective unique short URL e g typically no two products have associated therewith the same short URL In this second version the short URLs may be used to respec tively identify the registration records of the database 18 wherein each registration record typically contains numerous fields for data such that each short URL may be respectively associated with a product by way of the product s serial number product identifier and or any other suitable identifi ers as will be discussed in greater detail below For example the unique short URLs may serve as the unique product identifiers 0026 Inthe first embodiment software module s execut ing on the computer 24 located at the facility 12 or any other suitable location are operative for creating at least the short URLs optionally also the product identifiers and the sym bologies 20 and these executing software modules are opera tive for associating the short URLs and optionally the product identifiers with some of the product registration information e g product serial and model numbers the symbologies are printed
22. folded out or the like so as to provide selectable icons for water filters cleaners and maintain parts Similarly other menus tabs and or icons of the Relationship Website may be selected folded out or the like A variety of icons menus tabs and other graphic user interface features are within the scope of this disclosure 0065 Inaddition or alternatively each recipient 14 having a relationship account with the portal apparatus may be able to interact with the portal apparatus to implement their pref erences and have those preferences stored in the database 18 or the like and reflected in their personalized Relationship Webpage For example a registered recipient 14 may choose to have information about their registered products 10 orga nized and displayed all together in their personalized Rela tionship Webpage such as by having their registered products sorted or organized as major appliances small appliances accessories or the like The sorting organizing may also be by product line like Cooking Kitchen Laundry etc In addi tion to the Relationship Web site presenting information from the database 18 it may also present advertising and other types of offers to the recipients 14 for example as shown in FIG 10 0066 In the foregoing each server computer or comput erized device may be in the form of or comprise one or more computer or computer like devices which may include one or more appropriat
23. g at least the reminder of the registration process For example the registration records and fields of the database 18 may be built out or the like for being populated with the additional registration information to be provided in the future and fields may be set up to be dynamically assigned modified or otherwise adjusted in the future as needed for handling different languages returning users promotional items surveys or other features for pro moting relationships with the recipients 14 e g customers As indicated above the database 18 of FIG 1 may serve as either one of the local and remote databases 32 34 of FIG 7 Alternatively one or both of the local and remote databases 32 34 may be in addition to the database 18 wherein the local and remote databases 32 34 may be respectively associated with the computer 24 and the server 26 or the databases may be in any other suitable location That is the data of this disclosure may distributed across the databases 18 32 34 the multiple databases may be provided for purposes of redun dancy e g to increase reliability and or the one or more databases may be managed in any other suitable manner Continuing with FIG 8 in block 75 the symbologies 20 may be created and associated with the products 10 as discussed above Then in block 80 communications may be received from the recipients 14 as discussed above and as will be discussed in greater detail below registration of p
24. gh operation of one or more software modules associated with the portal apparatus a scripted redirection feature of the portal appara tus checks the referring shortened URL and matches e g via a look up table of database 18 or any other suitable meth ods and or devices the referring shortened URL to the cor responding long URL so that the Product Registration Webpage 21 of the Product Registration Website is displayed on the display screen of the mobile device 16 as discussed in greater detail below The URL of the scanned symbology 20 being associated in the database 18 with the information about the product 10 associated with the scanned symbology 20 facilitates the automatic identification of and the automatic US 2014 0372325 Al following up comprising using at least some of the personal and product information associated with the registering for communicating with the recipient Thereafter the CRM data may be used in a conventional manner or any other suitable manner to communicate with the recipient 14 These commu nications may be characterized for example as a following up with the recipient 14 with this following up comprising using at least some of the personal and product information associated with the registering for communicating with the recipient 0038 A second embodiment of this disclosure is like the above discussed first embodiment except for variations noted and variations that will be apparent to one of ord
25. ice associated with the recipient formatting an electronic registration record comprising an association between the URL and a product specific identifier corresponding to the product storing the electronic registration record in a memory receiving the URL from the computing device associated with the recipient and in response to receiving the URL determining the product specific identifier based at least in part on the URL identifying the stored electronic registration record based at least in part on the product specific identifier sending the first webpage to a web browser of the com puting device associated with the recipient wherein the first webpage includes fields configured for receiving personal information associated with the recipient for registering the product receiving the personal information associated with the recipient from the web browser of the computing device associated with the recipient wherein receiv ing the personal information occurs at least partially in response to sending the first webpage amending the stored electronic registration record to include the personal information associated with the recipient at least in part to register the product with the provider such that the personal information asso ciated with the recipient is stored in the memory in association with the product specific identifier and amending a lookup reference associating the URL with the first webpage to associate the URL with
26. inary skill in the art In accordance with the second embodiment non smart phone users are able to use the short URL and or a concatenated e g shortened version of the URL by way of a standard web browser or by way of audible e g verbal communication using a telephone or the like as will be discussed in greater detail below 0039 FIGS 4 7 schematically illustrate aspects of an exemplary method and associated features in accordance with the first and second embodiments of this disclosure FIG 4 schematically illustrates to the left of the arrow in FIG 4 that the original format of the base product data i e data about the products 10 FIG 1 may be in any suitable form such as but not limited to one or more modules in the form of a spreadsheet tab delimited text comma separated values or pre scripted arrays or any other suitable process compatible format may be used The arrow in FIG 4 schematically illus trates that the base product data e g base product data mod ules may be stored on and or processed by way of one or more of any suitable electronic devices such as but not lim ited to enterprise level servers e g web or print servers desktop workstations e g for data scrubbing and or valida tion or other databases As examples any sufficient software language may be used such as Structured Query Language SQL and the databases may be managed by any suitable database manager such as SAP For exampl
27. ing the labels 40 symbologies 20 however any other suit able software firmware and or hardware may be used Also the symbologies 20 and text versions 42 of the shortened URLs contained in the symbologies 20 may be printed on any suitable substrate such that the present disclosure is not lim ited to the use of labels 40 0041 As schematically shown in FIG 5 the tags labels 40 which typically comprise both the symbologies 20 and the text versions 42 of the shortened URLs contained in the symbologies may be mounted to or otherwise associated with the products 10 at the facility 12 e g factory With regard to the assembling and packaging line for the products 10 at the facility 12 e g factory the labels 40 may be paired with e g mounted to or otherwise associated with the prod ucts 10 at the point where owner s manuals registration infor mation and product information are paired with the products In this regard the labels 40 may have an adhesive backing and may be used in place of or in addition to conventional labels not shown that are conventionally mounted to or otherwise associated with the products at the facility 12 For example the products 10 may be of any suitable type for which product identification or registration information is provided to the recipient 14 e g consumer with the product e g appli ance 0042 From the facility 12 e g factory the products 10 may reach the recipients 14
28. ion The purpose of this section is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later Other aspects of this disclosure will become apparent from the following BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0008 Having described some aspects of this disclosure in general terms reference will now be made to the accompa nying drawings which are not necessarily drawn to scale The drawings are exemplary only and should not be construed as limiting the invention 0009 FIG 1 schematically illustrates aspects of systems and methods for registering products in accordance with a first embodiment of this disclosure 0010 FIG 2 is a more detailed view of a representative matrix code symbology schematically shown in FIG 1 0011 FIG 3 illustrates a Product Registration Webpage in accordance with the first embodiment 0012 FIGS 4 7 schematically illustrate aspects of an exemplary method and associated features in accordance with first and second embodiments of this disclosure 0013 FIG 8 is a process flow diagram illustrating an exemplary overall process associated with at least registering a product that is provided by a provider and received by a recipient in accordance with an aspect of this disclosure 0014 FIG 9 is a process flow diagram illustrating an exemplary process that may be performed by a portal appa ratus for receiving communicatio
29. ion Dec 18 2014 Sheet 3 11 US 2014 0372325 1 BRAND AND OR OTHER INFORMATION ee PRODUCT REGISTRATION LANGUAGE PREFERENCE NAME FIRSTNAME sd LASTNAME __ ADDRESS AUTOFILL RECOMMENDED IF ENABLED ADDRESS 1 ADDRESS 2 SELECT A STATE PROVINCE 01 1 ZIP POSTAL CODE 0 PRODUCT INFORMATION DATE OF PURCHASE ssid PLACE OF PURCHASE PLEASE VERIFY THIS INFORMATION IS 67 FIG 3 eee 51910 le 31 US 2014 0372325 A1 Dec 18 2014 Sheet 4 of 11 Patent Application Publication Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 5 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 FIG 5 Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 6 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 FIG 6 Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 7 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 8 of 11 US 2014 0372325 1 PROVISION OF INITIAL DATA 70 DELIVERY OF INITIAL DATA 75 RECEIVE COMMUNICATION FROM RECIPIENT AND PROMOTE RELATIONSHIP WITH RECIPIENT 80 FIG 8 Patent Application Publication Dec 18 2014 Sheet 9 11 US 2014 0372325 1 RECEIVE AT LEAST SHORTENED URL 100 PRODUCT PREVIOUSLY REGISTERED 105 PROVIDE PROVIDE REGISTRATION RELATIONSHIP WEBSITE WEBSITE 10 120 COMMUNICATE WITH RECIPIENT 155 ASSOCIATE SHORTENED REG
30. is enabled for the web browser of the mobile device Accordingly in one aspect of this disclosure the portal apparatus is operative for associating the recipient s personal information with infor mation from the provider about the product 10 identified by the product identifier e g the short URL for product reg istration purposes without the recipient inputting at least some of one or more of the information from the provider and the recipient s personal information 0045 When atleast a sufficient number of the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 are automatically or other wise filled the recipient 14 may visually review and verify the data displayed by way of the Product Registration Webpage and thereafter select 8 submit button or icon on their mobile device 16 Before the submitting the recipient 14 may edit or otherwise modify the data in one or more of the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 using the user interface of their mobile device 16 0046 As schematically illustrated in FIG 7 in response to the recipient 14 selecting to submit the data in the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 the data in the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 and any additional associ ated data are transmitted in a predetermined manner for completing the registration process This completing of the registration process may comprise updating or creating the respective registration record such
31. lated symbologies 20 may be printed by way of a printer 23 simultaneously with other symbologies that are convention ally associated with products 10 0022 More specifically regarding the codes embedded in the symbologies 22 for at least the registration process these codes may optionally comprise both a product identifier and a universal resource locator URL e g a shortened URL or the codes embedded in the symbologies may consist essen tially of or consist of URLs e g shortened or short URLs that function at least indirectly as or are otherwise associated with product identifiers More specifically each product 10 is identified by a unique identifier for product registration pur poses product identifier e g typically no two products have the same product identifier For example the product identifier may be a serial number for a product 10 although the product identifier is shorter than a typical product serial number 0023 As mentioned above and as will be discussed in greater detail below in some embodiments or versions of this disclosure each symbology 20 may be decoded to provide only a short URL represent However this disclosure is not limited to such embodiments or versions For example in a first version of the first embodiment for each product 10 the respective symbology 20 may include a URL e g a short ened URL and the respective product identifier That is the URL and respective product i
32. luding integrated circuits such as for example an ASIC application specific integrated circuit an FPGA field programmable gate array some combination thereof or the like Although illustrated as a single processor it will be appreciated that the processor 212 may comprise a plurality of processors The plurality of pro cessors may be in operative communication with each other and may be collectively configured to perform one or more of the above discussed functionalities In some exemplary embodiments the processor 212 may be configured to execute instructions that may be stored in the memory 214 or that may be otherwise accessible to the processor 212 As such whether configured by hardware or by a combination of hardware and software the processor 212 is capable of per forming operations according to various embodiments while configured accordingly 0071 In some exemplary embodiments the memory 4 may include one or more memory devices Memory 214 may include fixed and or removable memory devices In some embodiments the memory 214 may provide a non transitory computer readable storage medium that may store computer program instructions that may be executed by the processor 212 In this regard the memory 214 may be configured to store information data applications instructions and or the like for enabling the electronic communications device 102 to carry out various functions in accordance with one or more exemplary embodimen
33. marketing metrics 0037 Inresponse to the recipient 14 registering their prod uct 10 as discussed above the Product Registration Website may substantially immediately and automatically confirm the registration to the recipient by way of the recipients mobile devices 16 with the confirmation being in the form of a confirming webpage e mail notification a text message noti fication voicemail notification and or any other suitable con firmation This confirmation may be characterized for example as a following up with the recipient 14 with this US 2014 0372325 Al are hosted by the server 26 and the communication between the mobile device 16 and the portal apparatus is by way of the network 30 wherein the network may comprise the Internet as discussed above More specifically the mobile device 16 may comprise a transceiver module for communicating with one or more cellular data networks for accessing the Internet 0031 In response to the mobile device 16 accessing the portal apparatus or more specifically the Product Registra tion Website of the portal apparatus using the symbology 20 for the first time as discussed above the Product Registration Webpage 21 typically automatically appears on the display screen of the mobile device 16 An example of the Product Registration Webpage 21 is shown in FIG 3 although the Product Registration Webpage may be in any other suitable configuration The Product Registration Webpage 21 i
34. mate the recipient are located remotely from the facility 12 The products 10 may be any suitable products such as major appliances for air care dish care fabric care food preparation and food preservation professional prod ucts and small domestic appliances As more specific examples the products 10 may be appliances such as kitchen and or laundry appliances although other types of products are also within the scope of this disclosure The kitchen appli ances may be one or more of an oven stove range warmer toaster dishwasher refrigerator freezer coffee maker blender and crock pot The laundry appliances may be one or more ofa laundry washer laundry dryer and iron Other types of appliances such as but not limited to vacuum cleaners are also within the scope of this disclosure 0019 In one aspect the first embodiment pertains to opti mizing and streamlining the product registration process such as by providing the ability for recipients 14 e g cus tomers to register products 10 via a website and computer ized mobile devices 16 such as smart phones In addition the utilization of codes imbedded in symbologies 20 and a com puter database 18 comprising a look up table or the like minimizes manual data entry in a manner that saves time and promotes accuracy as will be discussed in greater detail below The database 18 is shown in FIG 1 as being associated with a computer and or computer server 26 or the like l
35. ns from recipients and pro moting relationships with recipients in accordance with an aspect of this disclosure 0015 FIG 10 illustrates a Relationship Webpage in accor dance with an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure 0016 FIG 11 illustrates a block diagram of for example a portal apparatus that may be implemented on one or more devices of this disclosure and that may be operative for at least partially providing some of the features of this disclo sure US 2014 0372325 Al SYSTEM METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR REGISTERING PRODUCTS AND PROMOTING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 0001 This application is a continuation application of USS application Ser No 13 869 527 filed Apr 24 2013 that claims the benefit of U S Provisional Application No 61 637 536 filed Apr 24 2012 which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and for all purposes BACKGROUND 0002 Itis typical for companies to have Customer Rela tionship Management CRM systems for use in fostering relationships with customers CRM systems typically com prise a computer database in which customer information is associated with product registration information For example when a customer purchases a product the product may be accompanied by a product registration card that the customer may fill out so that the completed product registra tion card includes information about bo
36. ocated remotely from the facility 12 although the database 18 may be located at the facility and be associated with a computer 24 at the facility or the database 18 may be in any other suitable location s 0020 The computer 24 and server 26 may be in commu nication with one another over a first network 28 and or a second network 30 and or the computer 24 and server 26 may be consolidated together into one or more computers The first network 28 may be a dedicated network that is separate from the second network 30 or the first and second networks 28 30 may be the same network The first and second net works 28 30 may include one or more suitable communica tion networks such as but not limited to the Internet cable television networks cellular data networks and or the public switched telephone network Alternatively the server 26 Dec 18 2014 model number to the server for populating or at least updat ing the look up table feature or the like of the database 18 In the look up table feature or the like of the database 18 product identifiers and or short URLs may be associated with any other suitable information e g for facilitating product registration servicing marketing or the like for the respec tive product 10 prior to the recipient 14 participating in the registration process For example the database 18 may com prise a Customer Relationship Management CRM com puter database and the look up tabl
37. ovider about the product in at least one computer data base wherein at least some of the information about the product varies between products The method may further comprise a portal apparatus receiving the URL from a web browser of a recipient s mobile device The method may further comprise the portal apparatus sending the webpage to the web browser of the recipient s mobile device at least in response to receiving the URL from the web browser of the recipient s mobile device wherein the webpage includes fields for receiving personal information from the recipient for registering the product identified by the decodable prod uct identifier The method may further comprise the portal Dec 18 2014 together with the computer databases 18 may optionally be located at the facility 12 proximate the computer 24 in which case the server 26 and the computer 24 may be connected to one another by way of a local area network 0021 Codes used in the registration process may be embedded in suitable one dimensional symbologies such as Universal Product Code barcodes However two dimen sional symbologies 20 such as matrix codes having square or dot shaped modules arranged on a grid pattern or the like may be preferred Of particular interest may be the Quick Response QR type of matrix symbologies An example of a suitable two dimensional symbology 20 in the form of a matrix code symbology is shown in FIG 2 The registration re
38. portal apparatus e g the Product Registration Website may substantially immediately and automatically confirm the registration to the recipient by way of the recipients mobile devices 16 with the confirmation being in the form of a confirming webpage e mail notifica tion a text message notification voicemail notification and or any other suitable confirmation Alternatively or in addi tion registration confirmation may be provided or further provided by processing control being transferred to block 120 As indicated above in block 120 the portal apparatus sends the Relationship Webpage FIG 10 of the Relationship Website to the computerized device 16 from which the short URL was received at block 100 or to another suitable loca tion 0062 An example ofa Relationship Webpage of the Rela tionship Website is shown in FIG 10 although the Relation ship Webpage and Website may be in any other suitable configuration In accordance with one aspect of this disclo sure when the Relationship Webpage or Website is provided in block 120 the Relationship Webpage or Website is auto matically customized in view of the relationship account associated with the short URL that was received at block 100 That is and in certain embodiments the Relationship Webpage or Website is automatically customized taking into account at least some of or substantially all of the products 14 and other relevant information that is included in the databas
39. products mounted to the packaging of the products included on registration cards associated with the products e g the symbologies may be placed on multilin gual product registration cards and or the symbologies may be associated with the products in any other suitable manner 0028 At least a portion of one or more of the features aspects or steps described as being located at or carried out at the facility 12 may be located at or carried out in any other suitable location For example the symbologies 20 may be associated with the products 10 at any suitable location such as locations positioned downstream from the factory in the flow of goods from the factory As another example at least some of the operations carried out by the computer 24 may be carried out by the server 26 and vice versa and the computer 24 and server 26 may operate together to facilitate some aspects of this disclosure For example when the database 18 is associated with the server 26 as shown in FIG 1 the computer 24 transmits data e g database registration records associating short URLs and or product identifiers with product registration information e g product serial and Dec 18 2014 and or edit the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 e g by way of a keyboard or touchscreen user interface of the mobile device 16 0034 Stated differently the Product Registration Website may be optimized specifically for mobile users so that a
40. ratus provides features for promoting communications between the provider and the recipient and at least some of these communications promote the marketing related interests of the provider In addition or alternatively the communications may be for providing data to be analyzed by the provider in a manner that is less marketing focused As one specific example the Rela tionship Website and or one or more other features of this disclosure may be omitted or varied for a wide variety of purposes 0076 Although the above disclosure has been presented in the context of exemplary embodiments it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be utilized without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the appended claims and their equivalents 1 14 canceled 15 A method for at least registering a product with a provider the product being provided by a provider and received by a recipient the method comprising a computing system associated with the provider US 2014 0372325 Al perform actions in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments disclosed herein In this regard and for the apparatus 200 implemented on the mobile device 16 the processing circuitry 210 may be configured to perform and or control performance of one or more of the above discussed functionalitie
41. roducts 10 may be facilitated as discussed above and as will be discussed in greater detail below and relationships with the recipients 14 may be further facilitated as discussed above and in greater detail below 0053 FIG 9 is a process flow diagram illustrating in greater detail an exemplary processes of block 80 of FIG 8 in accordance with an aspect of this disclosure The process illustrated by FIG 9 may be carried out by the portal appa ratus as will be discussed in greater detail below Referring to Dec 18 2014 ads maintenance reminders and other suitable features for facilitating consumer engagement with the provider That is the Relationship Website may be operative to encourage the consumer to provide additional data to the provider e g company which the provider may use for a variety of pur poses For example one aspect of this disclosure is the pro vision of a system that seeks to promote product registration and serve as an enhanced customer relationship management system The system of this disclosure may advantageously be used to promote standardization of product labeling and reg istration procedures 0064 Referring for example to the Relationship Webpage shown in FIG 10 it includes icons for numerous pull down or fold out menu s such as for subscriptions appliances and accessories and each of the menus may cascade hierarchally For example FIG 10 schematically shows a subscriptions menu or tab
42. s con figured to be filled with product registration information and the Product Registration Website is associated with the data base 18 for data storage and retrieval In response to accessing the Product Registration Website and the Product Registra tion Website receiving the decoded product identifier e g the short URL as discussed above the Product Registration Website identifies e g software module s associated with the Product Registration Website are executed for identify ing predetermined information in the database 18 e g by way of look up table s or the like that is associated with the decoded product identifier e g the short URL for further association with information i e data input into the Product Registration Webpage 21 This associating together of the information may be achieved through operation of the Prod uct Registration Website e g software module s associated with the Product Registration Website 0032 Through operation of the Product Registration Web site e g software module s associated with the Product Registration Website the associated together information may be stored together in the database 18 as a database registration record or otherwise linked together and saved in any suitable manner such as in or as part of the computer ized look up table the CRM computer database or in any other suitable manner or location For example the associ ated together information ma
43. s of the mobile device 16 in accordance with various exemplary embodiments Similarly for the apparatus 200 implemented on the computer 24 the processing cir cuitry 210 may be configured to perform and or control per formance of one or more of the above discussed functional ities of the computer 24 in accordance with various exemplary embodiments As another example for the appa ratus 200 implemented on the server 26 the processing cir cuitry 210 may be configured to perform and or control per formance of one or more of the above discussed functionalities of the server 26 in accordance with various exemplary embodiments 0069 In some exemplary embodiments the processing circuitry 210 may include a processor 212 and in some embodiments such as that illustrated in FIG 11 may further include memory 214 The processing circuitry 210 may be in communication with or otherwise control a communication interface 216 user interface 218 and one or more modules 220 such as but not limited to respective ones of the above discussed modules That is the modules 220 may be respec tively illustrative of the above discussed modules of the mobile device 16 computer 24 and server 26 0070 The processor 212 may be embodied in a variety of forms For example the processor 212 may be embodied as various hardware based processing means such as a micro processor a coprocessor a controller or various other com puting or processing devices inc
44. simple scan of the symbology 20 by way of a mobile device code reader application executing on the mobile device 16 will auto generate the model and serial numbers from the computerized look up tables or the like of the computer database 18 using the decoded product identifier e g the short URL Auto fill content of a user s mobile device 16 may be accessed if enabled More specifically any personal information already cached on the mobile device 16 e g smart phone may be automatically uploaded to populate fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 However this auto generation of the personal information would typically have to be enabled by pre selecting the auto fill function of the mobile device 16 and typically a user of the Product Registration Webpage 21 will have to affirmatively verify that the data on the Product Registration Webpage is accurate and ready to upload The Product Registration Website may pro vide uploaded data from the mobile device 16 and the respec tive information from the computerized look up tables or the like to the CRM computer database in real time 0035 Reiterating the recipient e g customer or con sumer can scan the symbology 20 associated with their prod uct 10 and automatically be directed to the Product Registra tion Website wherein the product identifier e g the short URL decoded from the symbology is automatically uploaded and used to obtain the model and serial number from
45. th the customer and the product Then the customer may mail the completed registration card to the company or its agent and the infor mation from the card may be entered into the CRM computer database for future use by the company For example the CRM computer database may be used for handling product recalls and or for soliciting extended service warranty busi ness 0003 There are barriers in current product registration processes For example product registrations cards may need to be printed in different languages Also customers fre quently do not complete and return product registration cards SUMMARY 0004 One aspect of this disclosure is the provision of web based symbology driven product registration systems and methods 0005 In accordance with one aspect of this disclosure a method for registering a product which is provided by a provider e g company and received by a recipient e g consumer comprises associating at least one symbology with the product wherein the at least one symbology com prises a decodable URL for at least indirectly accessing a website comprising a webpage and the at least one symbol ogy is configured to be imaged and decoded at least by a mobile device associated with the recipient Associated with the URL is at least one product identifier of a plurality of different product identifiers The method may further com prise associating the product identifier with information from the pr
46. the Relationship Website to the com puterized device 16 from which the short URL was received at block 100 0055 In some embodiments it may be preferable e g optional for decision block 105 to be generally or substan tially omitted and or for its functionality to be provided in another suitable way For example prior to block 100 such as in block 70 of the process of FIG 8 the long URL for the Product Registration Webpage 20 may be associated in the database 18 with the short URL to be received at block 100 As a result and for example in response to the mobile device 16 sending a short URL to the portal apparatus for the first time or perhaps any other time before product registration is completed for the product associated with the short URL the portal apparatus may automatically responsively transfer processing control from block 100 to block 110 so that the portal apparatus sends the Product Registration Webpage 21 of the Product Registration Website to the computerized device 16 from which the short URL was received at block 100 0056 Onthe other hand and as will be discussed in greater detail below after the product registration has been com pleted for the product associated with the short URL received at block 100 the long URL for the Relationship Webpage FIG 10 of the Relationship Website will have already been associated in the database 18 with the short URL received at block 100 so that the portal apparatus ma
47. through any suitable conventional channels of distribution commerce or the like For example FIG 6 schematically illustrates recipients 14 e g consum ers that are in receipt of e g holding products 10 that they have for example purchased As should be apparent from the foregoing the products 10 may be in many different forms and sizes are not limited to products that may be held by the recipients 14 0043 When the recipients 14 e g consumers obtain receive their products 10 they will have e g at least will be able to readily obtain access to the labels 40 symbologies 20 text versions 42 of the shortened URLs associated with their products Preferably e g optionally and as schemati cally shown in FIG 6 the recipient 14 scans the symbology 20 associated with e g mounted to their product 10 with their computerized mobile device 16 e g smart phone 0044 Several nonlimiting examples of mobile devices 16 e g smart phones are shown in FIG 7 As schematically shown in FIG 7 the mobile device 16 automatically obtains accesses to the Product Registration Website e g Product Registration Webpage 21 by way of the web browser or the like of the mobile device in response to the mobile device scanning the symbology 20 of the label 40 associated with the product More specifically scanning the symbology 20 causes the web browser module of the mobile device 16 to be directed to a predetermined website Throu
48. ting the recipients 14 to the Product Registration Webpage 21 of the Product Registration Website The long URLs may be contained in fields respectively of the registra tion records in the database 18 so that different short URLs may redirect to different long URLs and the URLs to which the short URLs redirect may be changed e g over time as will be discussed in greater detail below 0051 At least partially reiterating from above the initial data provided at block 70 may only include the short URL and associated product serial and model numbers or it may include additional information such as a long URL associ ated with the short URL dates for promotion tracking bool ean assignments for returning users and or any other suitable information In one example each symbology 20 may include only its short URL with the information associated with the short URL being associated by way of the look up table or the like of the database 18 or the like In this example for each short URL all information associated with the short URL may be fully variable at any time by virtue of the information being editable changeable in the look up table of the database 18 Alternatively one or more of the fields of reach registration record in the look up table of the database 18 may be set up so that its contents may not be edited or otherwise changed 0052 At block 70 the database 18 may be built out and populated in a manner for facilitatin
49. ts In some embodiments the memory 214 may be in communication with one or more of the pro cessor 212 communication interface 216 user interface 218 and modules 220 via bus es for passing information among components of the apparatus 200 0072 As alluded to above the apparatus 200 may include a communication interface 216 The communication inter Dec 18 2014 determining based on the lookup reference the second webpage associated with the URL and sending the second webpage to the web browser of the computing device associated with the recipient 17 The method according to claim 15 wherein the com puting system associated with the provider amending a lookup reference further comprises the computing system associated with the provider amending a lookup reference associating the URL with the first webpage comprising a registration webpage to instead associate the URL with a second webpage comprising a relationship webpage 18 The method according to claim 15 wherein the com puting system associated with the provider amending a lookup reference associating the URL with the first webpage to associate the URL with a second webpage further com prises the computing system associated with the provider replacing the first webpage with the second webpage in a look up table associated with the lookup reference 19 The method according to claim 15 wherein the com puting system associated with the provider generating a sym
50. version 42 of the shortened URL which is typically adjacent the symbology 20 to a representative at the Call Center and the representative at the Call Center may assist in facilitating completion of the registration process 0050 FIG 8 is a process flow diagram illustrating an exemplary process that may be used for facilitating registra tion of a product 10 that is provided by a provider and received by a recipient 14 in accordance with an aspect of this disclo sure As shown in FIG 8 in block 70 initial data is provided The initial data may include the data discussed above that is in existence prior to the printing of the symbologies 20 such as the data to be embodied in the symbologies and the data in the database 18 prior to the recipients registering their products 10 For example for each product the initial data in the database 18 may include only product serial and model num bers and the unique short URL associated with the product Also in the database registration record for each product the US 2014 0372325 Al populating of at least some of the fields of the Product Reg istration Webpage 21 displayed on the display screen of the mobile device 16 In addition other fields of the of the Prod uct Registration Webpage 21 displayed on the display screen of the mobile device 16 may be automatically filled such as with information e g the recipient s name and address from the mobile device if the auto fill function
51. y automatically responsively transfer processing control from block 100 to block 120 so that the portal apparatus sends the Relationship Webpage of the Relationship Website to the computerized device 16 from which the short URL was received at block 100 0057 Processing control is transferred from block 110 to block 125 At block 125 the registration may be completed for the product 10 associated with the URL received at block 100 and the registration may be completed through the use of the Registration Webpage 21 of the Product Registration Website as discussed in detail above 0058 Processing control is transferred from block 130 to block 135 At block 135 the portal apparatus queries the database 18 to determine whether the recipient 14 associated with the URL received at block 100 has a relationship account number or the like for allowing the recipient to access the Relationship Webpage of the Relationship Website Ifa nega tive determination is made at block 135 processing control is transferred to block 140 Ifa positive determination is made at block 135 processing control is transferred to block 145 US 2014 0372325 Al initial data typically further includes a long URL for auto matically directing the recipient 14 to the Product Registra tion Webpage 21 FIGS 3 and 7 of the Product Registration Website That is the short URLs may be assigned viaa lookup table of the database 18 to a long URL for automatically direc
52. y be referred to as a registration record and the registration record may be maintained in the database 18 e g the CRM computer database In summary the fields of the respective registration record may be auto matically populated with the entries in the computerized look up table that are associated with the decoded product identifier e g the short URL and the registration record may also be populated with the information input into the Product Registration Webpage 21 e g as entered by the recipient 14 via the computerized mobile device 16 These operations may be carried out through operation of the Prod uct Registration Website e g software module s associated with the Product Registration Website 0033 The Product Registration Webpage 21 provides for flexible data entry For example at least some of the fields of the Product Registration Webpage 21 may be automatically populated with personal information about the recipient 14 that is available from their mobile device 16 if the mobile device has this auto fill feature and it is enabled These operations may be carried out through cooperative operation of the Product Registration Website e g software module s associated with the Product Registration Website and the mobile device 16 e g software module s associated with the mobile device The recipient 14 may also manually input Dec 18 2014 print management software modules may be utilized in cre at
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