Registers – Records – Conductive
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2002-02-26
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Conductive
C235S382000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06349881
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the marking of personal property with identifying information and the retrieval of such information from such property. The invention is especially useful in applying identification information to, and retrieving such information from, unicycles, bicycles, motorcycles, tricycles, four-wheelers and ATVs. The invention may be used to identify an item of stolen property that has been recovered by the authorities so as to facilitate the return of the item to its rightful owner.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Theft of personal property is a serious problem in the United States. One item of personal property that is easy to steal during normal use is a bicycle. Bicycles are inherently portable, and they can be quickly stolen when left unattended or poorly secured on a sidewalk or other public place. Crime statistics indicate that millions of bicycles are stolen in the United States every year. Motorcycles are probably more difficult to steal, because of their weight and the fact that a key is required for proper operation, but they are also tempting targets for thieves because of their significant value and relative portability.
Many bicycle owners attempt to counter the risk of theft by employing one or more of various locking devices. However, many of the commonly used locking devices can be readily defeated with simple tools, such as lock picks, saws and bolt cutters, in a very short period of time. Even when a strong and effective locking device is used, however, a lamppost or other suitable object to which the bicycle may be locked is not always available. Furthermore, if a locking device is defeated by a determined thief or by the lack of a suitable securing object, the owner will have to rely on other means for assuring that his property, once recovered, can be identified and returned to him.
Since bicycles and motorcycles are so portable that the risk of theft is hard to eliminate, identification methods have been developed for marking these items of property so that if stolen and subsequently recovered, they can be returned to their owners. Manufacturers routinely place serial numbers on bicycles and motorcycles, but these can usually be removed or defaced so as to be illegible with little difficulty. In addition, in order for such serial numbers to be useful to law enforcement personnel, the owners of the vehicles must record the serial numbers and register them with the manufacturers or otherwise make them available to law enforcement personnel in the event of theft. Because reliance on serial numbers has proved ineffective, several other marking systems have also been developed for identifying personal property. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,575 of Leitner et al. describes a method and apparatus for identifying vehicles from encoded information that is displayed on a sticker that is applied to the vehicle. The code is in the form of a string of alpha-numeric characters or a bar code that corresponds to information about the vehicle and/or its owner. A code reader is provided that can compare the code (by computer link) read from the sticker to vehicle information stored in a remote computer. A user of the code reader can input the code using a keyboard or a wand-type bar code reader to obtain the stored identification information about the vehicle. However, such a code-bearing sticker can be removed or defaced so as to make its information irretrievable. A more subtle approach is the Micro-Tech Identification System of JanAlan Systems, Inc., which employs a small translucent sticker that is approximately 1.5 mm in diameter. This sticker can be printed with a message of up to 75 alphanumeric characters that may be read using a 30× magnifier. Because the sticker is so small, it is not easily noticed by a thief; however, it may not be noticed by law enforcement personnel either on property that is recovered as stolen. Since it is so small and since it may be placed anywhere on an item of property, only the owner of the property may be able to locate the sticker that he has placed thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,900 of Garrison describes an identification badge for a bicycle which comprises a pair of hardened steel casings that are adapted for attachment to the seat tube of a bicycle. The badge has an identifying number engraved thereon and an aluminum sticker with the owner's personal identifying information. This identification badge is not an attractive addition to a bicycle or other item of property, and it is possible that a determined thief could remove it or deface its identifying number. In addition, the aluminum sticker of Garrison could readily be defaced or removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,640 of Hilbon describes an identification device which contains an identification surface and which is designed to be mounted on an article of property such as an engine or the frame of a bike. The identification surface has an associated rod-like member that is capable of being broken into two parts. Upon breaking, one of the parts of the rod-like member will remain permanently attached to the article, and the other may be retained as a matching piece to identify the article through the “breakprint” formed by breaking the rod-like member. This system requires the owner to retain the broken piece of the rod-like member and to make it available to law enforcement personnel in the event his bike is lost or stolen. In addition, it seems likely that the breakprint formed by breaking the rod-like member of Hilbon could, if placed in a conspicuous place, be defaced by a thief so as to be useless as an identifier.
U.K.I.D. Systems Ltd. of the United Kingdom has developed a microchip tagging system in which passive transponder microchips may be hidden in or on the frame, engine or other major components of a motorcycle. The microchip contains a unique identifier that may be read by a radio frequency (RF) scanner that is activated in the vicinity of the chip. While such a system is likely to be helpful to law enforcement personnel who may recover stolen property, especially because the microtags may be easily hidden so that they cannot be removed by a clever thief, radio frequency scanners are generally quite expensive and require significant power to operate. In addition, RF scanners must operate only within approved frequency ranges. However, since they operate in the electromagnetic spectrum, RF scanners may be adversely affected by electromagnetic interference from either intentional transmitters (such as radio stations) or unintentional transmitters (such as electronic equipment, engines, fluorescent lamps and the like). In addition, information from an RF activated microtag may not be reliably obtained if the effective range of the scanner (taking into account interference of which the operator may not be aware) is exceeded in examining an item of property.
Another radio frequency identification system has been developed by Motorola for access control and product tracking applications. This system uses conductive ink to store data on paper, plastic, glass, metal and other materials, which information is read by activating an RF scanner operating in the 125 KHz frequency range. This system suffers from all of the disadvantages of the U.K.I.D. system described above, especially that of limited range. According to Motorola, a postage stamp sized tag may be read by an RF scanner that is brought within 2 cm of the tag, while an 8.5×11 inch tag may be read from a distance of 28 inches.
It seems clear that theft of personal property including bicycles and motorcycles cannot be eliminated. Therefore, it would be desirable if a system could be developed that would increase the likelihood that stolen property which is recovered may be returned to its rightful owner. Although several systems have been described for marking and identifying property, and for retrieving identifying information therefrom, all have limitations and disadvantages. It would be desirable therefore, if a system could be developed that would fac
Hatcher Donald D.
Wilkey Richard Bruce
Chambliss Bahner & Stophel P.C.
Frech Karl D.
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