Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-13
2001-03-06
Lee, Michael G (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S483000, C235S493000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196460
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many products, such as alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, are unsuitable for minors, but are sold in locations where minors are present. Accordingly, vendors of such products are generally required to verify the age of buyers who appear to be underage. However, verification of a buyer's age by means of observing the buyer's identification card or driver's license, and calculating the buyer's age therefrom, is unreliable because such documents can be easily falsified, or the customer's age may be miscalculated by the vendor. Worse yet, oftentimes such verification may not occur at all because the fast-paced sales of high volume stores leave little time for store clerks to mentally calculate a customer's age, and such verification is inconvenient.
Therefore, a more reliable and efficient method for verification of age and other information, such as the expiration date of a driver's license, is needed. The implementation and widespread use of electronic devices that can readily and reliably verify the correct information contained in driver's licenses and photo identification cards (ID cards) would further discourage falsification of ID cards and serve as an important deterrent for underage teenagers against activities such as providing false evidence of age to obtain alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and other “age-controlled” products and services.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Each driver's license or ID card can be encoded with indicia, in a magnetic strip or bar code, indicative of the correct identity of the driver or license holder, such as date of birth, expiration date, address, and other personal identifying information (e.g., eye glass requirements, height, weight, organ donation). Commonly, driver's licenses contain a magnetic strip in the back, along the side, for storing these types of data. Such cards are inexpensive to manufacture and issue to millions of drivers.
Magnetic strips are known in the art and representative cards are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,506,148 to Berthold et al. issued on Mar. 19, 1985, and 5,714,747 to West et al. issued on Feb. 3, 1998. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,753, issued to Wichael, on Mar. 12, 1991, claims a multi-purpose computer-readable driver's license having a machine-readable magnetic tape adapted to store important information such as social security numbers, credit rating, traffic citations, and the like.
Driver's licenses or ID cards are inserted into a magnetic reader or swiped through a magnetic reader which reads optical, magnetic or electronic data, thereby generating an identification signal. The magnetic reader reads the encoded information on the magnetic strip and transmits the encoded information to a microprocessor contained within the device. For instance, the '747 patent to West et al. describes a magnetic reader used for reading magnetically encoded information within driver's licenses and plastic I.D. cards. U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,420 to Chang et al., issued on Nov. 29, 1988, discloses another typical magnetic card reading system and apparatus used for reading credit cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,939 to Tel et al., issued on Feb. 17, 1998, describes a system and method of verifying the legitimacy of a product against forgery by providing unique patterns of overlying individual fibers which cannot be copied. U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,136 to Murphree et al., issued on Mar. 24, 1998, teaches a typical method for merchants to verify the authenticity of debit cards by assessing and comparing information stored in the credit cards and the information provided by a network, to determine the delinquent or legitimate status of credit cards presented by buyers for payment.
However, the above-noted measures do not provide a simple, efficient and speedy method of verifying age in the context of purchasing alcohol, tobacco or other “age controlled” products and services.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,696,739 to Chang et al., issued on Oct. 29, 1996, teaches an alcohol and tobacco electronic identification calendar that can be used in connection with verification of age and identification of customers. This electronic device is designed to provide cashiers with ALCOHOL YEAR and TOBACCO YEAR. More particularly, this invention provides a perpetual calendar wherein the current time, date, month, year, and legal ages for alcohol and tobacco purchase of a particular state are entered and set into an electronic device. The device calculates the difference between the current year and the year of birth for consumers of legal age, and displays the corresponding tobacco and alcohol year. The month and date run perpetually according to the current date set, and the electronic calendar perpetually calculates the corresponding dates for alcohol and tobacco purchases. For example, the device constantly updates and displays the exact date for alcohol and tobacco purchases which, in turn, must be visually and mentally compared by the store clerk with the date of birth of individual buyers.
Therefore, in practice, a cashier would request a photo ID card or a driver's license from a customer who appears to be underage, check the date of birth on his or her license and compare it with the date displayed on the perpetual calendar. If the date of birth is after the alcohol or tobacco year displayed i.e., the date shown in the calendar, then the customer would not be allowed to purchase the product in question. Thus, the electronic device calendar disclosed in the '739 patent serves as a calculator for determining the difference between today's date and the date the person must have been born to be legally allowed to purchase alcohol or tobacco. This device does not calculate or display the individual's age and/or the expiration date of the driver's license, nor does it provide a means by which the validity of driver's licenses or ID cards can be readily verified.
Another drawback of the '739 perpetual calendar is that the store clerk must visually compare the date of birth that appears on the driver's license to the date shown on the perpetual calendar. Therefore, the effectiveness and reliability of the verification method associated with this prior art device depends heavily on the accurate observations and mental calculations performed by store clerks. As described earlier, in a fast-paced environment where mental calculations and observations are not reliable, mistakes are likely to occur with the use of this type of device.
A device called “ID-Check,” manufactured by Intelli-Check, Inc., is an electronic device that reads the magnetic strip or bar code encoded in government-issued driver's licenses. A driver's license is inserted or scanned through a magnetic reader, and the mechanism within the device interprets the information contained in the driver's license. The device then illuminates an indicator panel to show a check mark if the buyer is older than a preset age for an alcohol or tobacco product, or an “X” mark if the buyer is below the preset age. However, the exact age of the buyer is not displayed. This device also illuminates indicator panels to show whether a driver's license is expired or possibly tampered with, or if the device is out of paper. The device also prints a record of these transactions.
Because the ID-Check does not display the exact age of the buyer, the vendor must rely upon the preset age stored in the device, which must be updated on a daily basis, and upon the decision performed by the device that the buyer is old enough to purchase the product in question. Thus, the ID-Check does not provide the vendor with information necessary for the seller to determine the age of the buyer. Rather, it performs superfluous functions which are not essential for purposes of simply verifying the age and the expiration dates on driver's licenses. Moreover, the ID-Check does not provide a low-cost means by which an effective and speedy verification of the buyer's age and dri
Cardcom, Inc.
Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.
Lee Michael G
Taylor Larry
LandOfFree
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