EP0918312A1

EP0918312A1 - Adhesive labels protected against forgery and method for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents

Info

Publication number: EP0918312A1
Application number: EP98203805A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Joris Deckmyn
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1997-11-21
Filing date: 1998-11-11
Publication date: 1999-05-26
Anticipated expiration: 2018-11-11
Also published as: BE1011563A5; EP0918312B1; DE69812045D1; ATE234494T1; DE69812045T2

Abstract

The invention relates to adhesive labels protected against forgery for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents, consisting of separate foil material parts with identifying symbols and/or patterns on one side and an adhesive layer on the other side, and being part of one or more corresponding series of separate labels each of which is individually provided with a sequential marking while the labels are each provided with means for counteracting their forgery. The invention furthermore relates to a method for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents by means of such adhesive labels, whereby more specifically at least two identical series of separate labels can be used and corresponding labels can in each case be adhered to at least two goods and/or documents which have a connection with each other.

Description

The use of adhesive labels for rendering goods or documents recognisable is generally known.
When utilising such adhesive labels it is for example known from the patent document DE 2649424 that sequentially numbered labels can be provided.
On the other hand it is in itself also known that adhesive labels can be protected against forgery.
In this respect reference can be made to the following patent documents: DE 3317133, JP 9068927, EP 0326091, EP 0342982, EP 0360382, EP 0726555, DE 4314579, US 5477204, US 5020831, US 5303370.
According to this invention it has now been recognised that through an as yet unconceived and furthermore not obvious combination of these two techniques a totally new approach is possible for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents. Through this invention it is indeed possible to mark and/or stamp separate goods and/or documents in a certain manner and individually so that each object and/or each document can itself be protected.
It should be mentioned here that from the American patent 5380047 a method is in itself known for authenticating goods whereby a connection is made between a numbered label to be put on to the object and a document that refers to the number on the object or a number of objects. The disadvantage of this known method is that it does not have the versatility and flexibility of the new technique according to this invention.
The invention therefore provides new adhesive labels protected against forgery for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents, consisting of separate foil material parts with identifying symbols and/or patterns on one side and an adhesive layer on the other side, whereby the labels are part of one or more corresponding series of separate labels each of which is individually provided with a sequential marking while the labels are each provided with means for counteracting their forgery.
The specific means which are utilised for counteracting forgery of the labels are in fact subsidiary in relation to the principal idea of the invention; any solutions can in themselves be utilised for those means as known from the state-of-the-art (with respect to that reference is hereby explicitly made to the above quoted list of references).
The labels according to the invention preferably comprise however one or more specific means, according to the following list, for counteracting forgery of the labels:

"negative printing" of the sequential marking; by "negative printing" in this context is understood the printing of inkless ("white") symbols or patterns (namely the sequential marking) on a coloured background;
a transparent foil material for the labels of which a part is unprinted, so that a part of the labels (namely the sequential marking) is kept transparent;
perforations and/or slits which cause the tearing/ disintegration of the label in case of loosening of the adhesive label;
the identifying symbols and/or patterns of the labels are at least partly printed with metallic inks and/or dyes;
the identifying symbols and/or patterns of the labels are at least partly printed with characteristic/ reserved coloured inks, toners and/or dyes intended for digital printing presses. Such "proprietary" inks/ toners are sold by the company INDIGO Ltd., namely for the digital printing press system of the Eprint 1000 type.

Each of the specific means according to that list should in itself be considered as a separate preferred embodiment of the invention:
the invention does therefore not imply that all these means are present simultaneously. Hence for example also included in the scope of the invention are:

labels which are not printed on a transparent support, but more specifically on a white support, or
labels which are printed with a unique ("proprietary") ink/toner which is not based on metallic colours, as that is the case with most of the ink toners from the company INDIGO.

According to alternative and/or additional preferred characteristics of the invention:

the sequential marking of the separate labels can be printed with a programmed digital printing press; and/or
the sequential marking of the separate labels can consist of a sequential numbering; and/or
the adhesion layer of the adhesive labels can consist of an adhesive layer; and/or
the adhesion layer can consist of an adhesive layer with an adhesive which is suitable for adhesion on damp supports.

According to a further fundamental characteristic of the invention the labels are preferably part of at least two identical series of separate labels destined in each case to be adhered to at least two goods and/or documents which have a connection with each other.
The invention furthermore provides a method for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents through the application of adhesive labels, whereby labels according to the invention are used as described above.
According to a preferred embodiment of this method at least two identical series of separate labels are used, whereby the corresponding labels are in each case adhered to at least two goods and/or documents which have a connection with each other.
A number of the characteristics and distinctive features of the invention, and the concrete application thereof are illustrated in greater detail hereafter on the basis of a specific embodiment thereof, with reference to the attached drawings. It should be noted that the specific aspects of the embodiment such as explained are only intended as a preferred example in the scope of the above general specification of the invention, and may in no way be interpreted as a restriction on the scope of the invention as such and as expressed in the following claims.
In these drawings:
figure 1 is an illustration of a series of adhesive labels according to the invention;
figures 2 up to and including 5 are in each case illustrations of a partial print of what in total print forms the adhesive labels according to figure 1.
The adhesive labels according to figure 1 are numbered in a sequential order and provided for example in four columns one next to the other and five rows one under the other on a backing foil.
The labels themselves are part of a transparent foil slit around the labels with the identifying symbols and patterns as well as sequential marking printed thereon. Figure 1 shows 20 labels in each case with one row of four labels with the same marking symbols, and four columns in each case with five sequentially numbered labels.
The symbols printed on the labels according to figure 1 consist of diverse separately printed "colours" namely gold according to figure 2, silver according to figure 3, a visible colour according to figure 4, that same visible colour plus black according to figure 5, and a number of colours that cannot be reproduced in black and white, consequently not shown. The sequential marking symbols are implemented in negative print against the gold background according to figure 2 and are thus in practice therefore transparent on the labels.
Each row of labels forms a series of four identical labels. When using the labels in each case one label is adhered to one object to be marked and/or stamped and another identical label can be adhered to one or more matching authentication documents.
The described method forms a very simple and very flexible manner for the individual user to mark objects, with a very good protection against forgery, whereby at the same time in a very simple way authentication documents can be produced that are very well protected against forgery.

Claims

Adhesive labels protected against forgery for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents, consisting of separate foil material parts with identifying symbols and/or patterns on one side and an adhesive layer on the other side, characterised in that the labels are part of one or more corresponding series of separate labels each of which is individually provided with a sequential marking while the labels are each provided with means for counteracting their forgery.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for counteracting forgery of the labels comprise "negative printing" of the sequential marking.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for counteracting forgery of the labels comprise a transparent foil material for the labels of which a part is unprinted.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for counteracting forgery of the labels comprise perforations and/or slits which cause the tearing/disintegration of the label in case of loosening of the adhesive label.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for counteracting forgery of the labels imply that the identifying symbols and/or patterns of the labels are at least partly printed with metallic inks and/or dyes.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for counteracting forgery of the labels imply that the identifying symbols and/or patterns of the labels are at least partly printed with characteristic/reserved coloured inks, toners and/or dyes intended for digital printing presses.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the sequential marking of the separate labels is printed with a programmed digital printing press.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the sequential marking of the separate labels consists of a sequential numbering.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the adhesion layer consists of an adhesive layer.
Adhesive labels according to claim 1, characterised in that the labels comprise further measures according to at least two of the claims 2 up to and including 9.
Adhesive labels according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the adhesion layer consists of an adhesive layer with an adhesive which is suitable for adhesion on damp supports.
Adhesive labels according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the labels are part of at least two identical series of separate labels destined in each case to be adhered to at least two goods and/or documents which have a connection with each other.
Method for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents through the application of adhesive labels, characterised in that labels are used according to one of the claims 1 up to and including 11.
Method for marking and/or stamping goods and/or documents according to claim 13, characterised in that at least two identical series of separate labels are used, whereby the corresponding labels are in each case adhered to at least two goods and/or documents which have a connection with each other.