Paid Inc. announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has mailed the Notification of Allowance for its patent application covering online shipping calculation technology. The USPTO generally issues a patent within 90 days following a formal Notification of Allowance, according to the company press release.

Paid's patent uses zip codes as a location indicator so shipping rates can be calculated based on the shipping distance between origination and destination points. Paid CEO Greg Rotman said, "We believe that the patent could be extremely valuable and may enable us to pursue licensing agreements with numerous online companies. Nearly every online auction seller needs to ship their product to the buyer, necessitating that they calculate shipping costs."

Rotman said the company intends to actively pursue licensing agreements and take measures to protect it from infringement. "We also are considering selling the patent to entities that could handle these functions for us and pay a royalty on each licensing agreement secured."

Paid uses its shipping calculator technology in its aiShip software, available via http://www.auctioninc.com. aiShip's calculation enables the shipping cost to appear immediately when an item is placed in an online shopping cart or bid on at auction, and it updates as items are added or removed from the online shopping cart or when the bid changes.

To view the updated USPTO web site page related to Paid's patent application, go to the link: http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair, then enter the patent application number 10106476.