BarPoint earns a patent for its comparison-shopping technology

Deerfield Beach, FL-based BarPoint.com Inc., which provides online and wireless product information and shopping services, reported today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has notified the company it intends to award a patent for its "Interactive System for Investigating Products on a Network."

The patent relates to technology that uses unique identifiers such as UPC numbers, barcodes, manufacturers` codes and other coded input to gather product-related information from a database and the Internet from both wired and wireless devices, the company says. This technology underlies the core BarPoint product information and shopping service as well as other applications.

"As a pioneer in the use of unique identifiers and `reverse-search` technology to simplify the process of obtaining product information from the Internet, we consider this as a significant achievement that adds tremendous value to our technology platform," said Leigh Rothschild, BarPoint founder and chairman. Rothschild is the listed inventor on the patent.

The BarPoint service is on the shopping menus of more than 95% of Internet-enabled phones sold in the U.S., the company reports. It maintains strategic alliances with companies such as Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel Communications, Office Depot, The Sharper Image, Air2Web, GoAmerica, i3 Mobile, Palm and Symbol Technologies.