US Patent Issued to United States Postal Service on June 17 for "Systems and methods for distributing items within a distribution network" (Virginia Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,333,475, issued on June 17, was assigned to United States Postal Service (Washington).

"Systems and methods for distributing items within a distribution network" was invented by Stephen M. Dearing (Herndon, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods for shipping items using codes existing on packaging of items is described. Systems and methods do not require a shipping label or additional codes to be placed on an item, thus eliminating the box-in-a-box situation that frequently occurs. The systems use the existing codes, such as UPC, SKU, serial numbers, etc., and utilize order information and distribution network information...