USPTO Issues Paid, Inc.'s Patent #7324968 for Real-time Online Shipping Calculation Methods

Business Wire, Jan 29, 2008

BOSTON -- Today, Paid, Inc.'s (OTCBB: PAYD) Patent #7324968 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) becomes "effective," providing Paid with all the rights granted to patent holders, including the ability to seek licenses for patent use and to protect the patent from infringement. Paid's patent is for the real-time calculation of shipping costs for items purchased online using a zip code as a destination location indicator. It includes shipping charge calculations across multiple carriers such as the US Postal Service, FedEx, UPS and DHL (Airborne), and accounts for additional characteristics of the item being shipped, such as weight, special packaging or handling, and insurance costs.

A key component of Paid's patent is the use of a zip code as a location identifier for the purposes of calculating real-time shipping costs in online purchases since many shippers' rates vary according to distance shipped.

When Paid applied for its patent seven years ago, Paid's technology was leaps and bounds ahead in an industry that was struggling to figure out how to automate real-time shipping calculation and communication with customers regarding shipping costs. The ecommerce industry has evolved tremendously in this area and more companies now recognize the importance of providing accurate shipping charges to customers up front in order to enhance customer service, reduce shopping cart abandonment and stay competitive. Today, Paid's shipping calculation products continue to lead the industry in breadth and depth of features, number of carriers' rates displayed and the ability to accommodate multiple product characteristics and special promotional offers.

Erik Adelhock, owner of a brick and mortar store called Auction Junkies that accepts items for eBay online auctions (eBay username auctionjunkies_llc), uses Paid's AuctionInc aiShip[TM] software to streamline orders. He said, "AuctionInc is the only software we found that was all encompassing and included all major shippers - even FedEx -- in one application. We do 90% of our shipments through FedEx, and AuctionInc saves us at least five minutes during the order process and five more during invoicing for each item due to the automation. Previously we had to calculate and enter the rates by hand and it was a nightmare."

Studies by major research firms and industry publications have shown the value of providing customers with the true cost of shipping based on weight, size, destination and other factors.

"We believe our patented methods for shipping calculation are very valuable to the online auction and ecommerce communities and expect them to generate significant revenue for Paid," said Mr. Greg Rotman, CEO of Paid, Inc. "The value of the patent lies in securing licensing agreements and/or selling the patent. Due to certain changes within the eCommerce and online auction marketplaces in the past six months, we are in the process of getting new valuations of the patent so we can evaluate the best way to monetize it for our shareholders."

"Paid continues to work with Hunton & Williams LLP on expanding Paid's intellectual property (IP) portfolio and expects to work with Hunton & Williams and corporate counsel to actively pursue licensing agreements with numerous online businesses and auction companies as well as examine various ways to utilize our IP assets," Mr. Rotman noted. "As witnessed by our recently announced licensing agreement, we have already set the processes in motion to secure licensing of our shipping calculation methods and proprietary technologies utilized in our AuctionInc[TM] suite of shipping calculation software. We expect to provide an approximate value of future licensing agreements pending agreement from licensees."

"With ecommerce sales expected to continue growing from the $146.5 billion achieved in 2006 and some analysts estimating online auction sales to exceed $329 billion by 2010, we believe that a multitude of ecommerce companies will see the benefit of licensing our patented online shipping calculation technology," Rotman said. "As we secure more licensing agreements, we anticipate Paid's intellectual property will become very attractive to certain companies. As we have previously stated, we will consider selling the patent in the future for the right price."

Paid's AuctionInc[TM] shipping calculation software, unlike most others, includes FedEx rates compared in real-time to other carriers' rates, which helps ecommerce companies better serve their customers as well as save time.

Paid's shipping calculator technology is already in use by hundreds of companies via AuctionInc's suite of products, as well as within numerous ecommerce sites hosted and/or managed by Paid, Inc. AuctionInc's products, which include a shopping cart solution (ShopCart[TM]), a shipping application protocol interface (API) and aiShip, are available at www.auctioninc.com. The robust AuctionInc software enables the calculation of shipping, handling, insurance charges and applicable tax whenever an item is added to or removed from the online shopping cart or when a bid is placed rather than only during checkout - a major factor in the reducing shopping cart abandonment that plagues many online retailers. AuctionInc also calculates costs for shipping multiple items or packages from a vendor to the same buyer and handles many advanced calculations, such as drop-shipping and dimensional weight.