Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-18
2004-01-20
Mayes, Curtis (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S250000, C156S252000, C156S256000, C156S257000, C283S101000, C283S103000, C283S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06679970
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for preventing theft of information concealed on a card, and more particularly relates to a technique for preventing undetected access to information concealed on a card such as a lottery card or a prepaid telephone card.
2. Related Art
A prepaid telephone card often conceals a special code. Similarly, a lottery ticket, a game piece, and other types of items can conceal a special code. This type of special code is meant to be seen by the purchaser of the card. This type of special code is not meant to be seen by someone who does not purchase the card.
For example, the manufacturer of a prepaid telephone card typically wants to keep the special code hidden from view, until the prepaid telephone card is purchased. A prepaid telephone card can be purchased in many retail stores today. The car d can have a special code that is hidden on the card beneath a silvery material. A person who purchases the card can scratch off the silvery material covering the special code, and then use that special code to make long distance or local telephone calls. The prepaid telephone card can allow a purchaser to use a cellular telephone for a predetermined number of minutes, for example.
The special code corresponds to a prepaid account with a predetermined amount of funds. When a number of phone calls are made, and the funds in the prepaid account are exhausted, then the card and the special code are worthless. After the purchaser scratches off the material covering the special code, the card has silvery scratch marks on it. Because of the obvious scratch marks, the purchaser would not be able to return the card to the store and get a full refund, because the store owner would know that the special code has been accessed.
With some types of cards, the funds in the prepaid account can be utilized even without physical possession of the card, once the special code is known. When a store owner sees that a prepaid telephone card has silvery scratch marks on it, the store owner would probably presume that the funds in the prepaid account had been depleted. The store owner would probably refuse to give a refund to a person trying to return a prepaid telephone card with silvery scratch marks on it.
A professional thief might be able to access the special code on a prepaid telephone card without leaving the silvery scratch marks. A professional thief might be able to purchase a prepaid telephone card, access the special code in an undetectable manner, and then return the card to the store for a full refund, because the card did not have silvery scratch marks. The professional thief could make long distance telephone calls using the special code and thereby deplete the funds in the prepaid account. After the professional thief returned the card, nobody else would know that the special code was worthless. An innocent person would go to that store and purchase that same prepaid telephone card. That innocent person would scratch off the silvery material, and then soon find out that the special code was worthless. That innocent person might then think that the telephone company that issued the prepaid card was incompetent, or might think that the store owner was dishonest, and might have trouble getting a refund for the prepaid telephone card.
A professional thief might be able to access the special code in an undetectable manner by heating the card to a predetermined temperature, carefully removing the silvery material from the card, reading the special code, and then replacing the silvery material over the special code on the card. A professional thief might be able to access the special code in an undetectable manner by shining a bright light through the card, and then reading the special code.
A similar type of special code can be concealed on a lottery ticket. In the case of a lottery ticket, the special code might correspond to lottery numbers. The lottery numbers might be winning lottery ticket numbers, or the lottery numbers might not be winning lottery ticket numbers. The professional thief can observe the numbers to see if the lottery ticket is a winning lottery ticket and then return the ticket to the store for a full refund if the lottery ticket is not a winning lottery ticket.
A special code can be concealed on a game piece. For example, a fast food restaurant might give out a free game piece with every purchase of a large soft drink. The game piece can have a special code hidden under a silvery material. The silvery material can be scratched off using a coin or a fingernail, for example. The special code might indicate that the person holding the card won a big prize, such as “YOU WIN AN AUTOMOBILE.” Or the special code might indicate that the person holding the card won a small prize, such as “YOU WIN ONE HAMBURGER.” Or the special code might indicate that the person holding the card did not win anything, by stating “YOU LOSE, PLEASE TRY AGAIN”.
A professional thief may be part of an organization that accesses boxes of prepaid telephone cards, boxes of lottery tickets, or boxes of game pieces before those boxes arrive at any retail store.
I have found that it would be advantageous to improve the method of concealing the special code on cards, tickets, pieces, and other items, and I have found that it would be advantageous to prevent the theft of such special codes. It would be beneficial to conceal such a special code in a manner that prevented undetectable access to the special code. It would be desirable to prevent a thief from accessing the special code and then disguising the card so that a future purchaser was unaware that the special code had been previously accessed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a structure preventing theft of special codes from cards, tickets, pieces, and other items. The present invention can prevent an undetected access to the special code. The present invention can prevent the undetected access to the special code by various methods.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a structure for preventing the embezzlement of the prepayment card. The structure has a transparent film with a predetermined pattern attached to its one side so that it can stick to the rear face of the prepayment card on which the identification number is printed. A mark remains on the card or film when the transparent film is removed by a dishonest means, thereby preventing the prepayment card(or lottery ticket) from being sold after the identification number has been seen (or revealed), and thus preventing improper commercial transactions.
In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a structure for preventing the theft of information from the prepayment card. The structure has a film which is processed to have an irregular wave-shape and a handle, with the film being attached to the face of the prepayment card, with the card having an identification number, with a self destructive hologram being attached strongly by bonding material so that it is possible that a a visible or detectable mark remains on the card after the identification number is viewed. Thus the prepayment card is prevented from being recovered to its original state after the identification number is viewed. In this way, the present invention prevents the prepayment card with a reattached film label from being sold, and protects customers since every one can recognize that the information on the card has already been accessed.
And, it is another object of the present invention to provide a structure for preventing the viewing of the special code of the prepayment card, in order to avoid improper commercial transactions in advance, by not allowing the card to be sold once, viewed, and then sold again.
The present invention is intended to solve problems associated with the following issues. If the user pays an amount of money to the communication company (the wired and wireless communication company), the communication co
Mayes Curtis
Robert E. Bushnell, Esq.
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