US Patent 10467583 Instance-based inventory services

An inventory service allows business entities to create inventory reports and other reports based on inventory data records corresponding respectively to individual instances of a product. When events take place regarding the product instance, the data record corresponding to the product instance is updated to indicate such events, including descriptions of the events and times of the events. Events may include purchase or sale of the product instance, location movements of the product instance, repairs and returns of the product instance, etc.