Cryptography – Electric signal modification – Having production of printed copy
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-09
2001-11-13
Wright, Norman M. (Department: 2131)
Cryptography
Electric signal modification
Having production of printed copy
C705S060000, C705S401000, C705S408000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317498
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to mail processing systems and more particularly to security of postage metering systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Digital printing technology has enabled mailers to implement digital, i.e., bit map addressable, printing in a convenient manner. It has been found to be desirable to use such techniques for the purpose of evidencing payment of postage. The computer driven printer can print, for example, a postal indicia in a desired location on the face of a mail piece.
Where it is necessary herein to distinguish such postage-meter-like devices from a typical postage meter, such devices will be called herein Postage Evidencing Devices or PED's. It should be understood, however, that the term “postage meter” as used herein will refer to both types.
Also as used herein a postal value bearing indicia will sometimes be called a Postal Revenue Block or PRB. The PRB typically contains data such as the postage value, a unique meter or PED identification number, the date and in some applications the name of the place where the mail is originating.
From the Post Office's point of view, it will be appreciated that the digital printing makes it fairly easy for someone to counterfeit a PRB since any suitable computer and printer may be used to generate multiple copies of the image.
In order to validate a mailpiece, that is to assure that accounting for the postage amount printed on a mailpiece has been properly done, it is known that one may include as a part of the franking an encrypted number such that, for instance, the value of the franking may be determined from the encryption to learn whether the value as printed on the mailpiece is correct. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,757,537 and 4,775,246 to Edelmann et al. as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,266 to Eckert. It is also known to authenticate a mailpiece by including the address as a further part of the encryption as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,718 to Sansone et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,747 to Fougere et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,044 to Pastor describes a system wherein include a binary array and the actual arrays of pixels are scanned in order to identify the provider of the mailpiece and to recover other encrypted plain text information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,577 to Pastor describes various alternatives to the DES encoding for encrypting a message and for comparing the decrypted postal information to the plain text information on the mailpiece.
U.K. 2,251,210A to Gilham describes a meter that contains an electronic calendar to inhibit operation of the franking machine on a periodic basis to ensure that the user conveys accounting information to the postal authorities. U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,827 to Sansone et al. describes a system for updating rates and regulation parameters at each meter via a communication network between the meter and a data center. While the meter is on-line status registers in the meter are checked and an alarm condition raised if an anomaly is detected.
While these implementations can work well, there has been no suggestion of how to implement any such concepts on a total system basis to make it practical for the large volumes of mail and large variable numbers of mailers which must be accommodated by the Postal Service.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to enable postal authorities to determine that a piece of mail taken from a large volume of mailpieces from different sources is carrying legitimate postage particularly when the indicia is printed using a computer printer.
It is another object to provide a method and apparatus for a mail system wherein the Postal Service can easily verify mailpieces arriving from a large number of different sources in order to assure itself that meters are properly accounting for mail introduced into the mail stream.
It is yet another object to provide a method and apparatus for a mail system wherein the vendor of the mail system is able to verify the authenticity of mailpieces using information independent of the Postal Service verification.
Thus the above and other objects are attained in a system for controlling the validity of printing of indicias on mailpieces from a plurality of users of respective postage meters of the type having computer means and a printer for printing an indicia on a mailpiece for indicating the amount of dispensed postage on the mailpiece, the system comprising apparatus disposed in each said postage meter for generating a code and for printing the code on each mailpiece using said printer, said code being an encrypted code representative of the postage meter apparatus printing the indicia and other information uniquely determinative of the legitimacy of postage on the mailpieces, each said code generating apparatus changing its code generation at predetermined time intervals in each of said plurality of postage meters, and a security center including apparatus for maintaining a security code database and for generating security codes in correspondence with the changes in each said generating apparatus and the information printed on the mailpiece by the postage meter apparatus for comparison with the code printed on the mailpiece.
In another aspect there is provided in a postage meter of the type having computer means and a printer for printing an indicia on a mailpiece for indicating an amount of dispensed postage on the mailpiece, the system comprising apparatus disposed in each said postage meter for generating a first and a second code and for printing the codes on each mailpiece using said printer, said codes being an encrypted code representative of the postage meter apparatus printing the indicia and other information uniquely determinative of the legitimacy of the amount of postage printed on the mailpiece.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4203166 (1980-05-01), Ehrsam et al.
patent: 4376299 (1983-03-01), Riverst
patent: 4634808 (1987-01-01), Moerder
patent: 4641346 (1987-02-01), Clark et al.
patent: 4649266 (1987-03-01), Eckert
patent: 4725718 (1988-02-01), Sansone et al.
patent: 4743747 (1988-05-01), Fougere et al.
patent: 4757537 (1988-07-01), Edelmann et al.
patent: 4775246 (1988-10-01), Edlemann et al.
patent: 4934846 (1990-06-01), Gilham
patent: 5008827 (1991-04-01), Sansone et al.
patent: 5142577 (1992-08-01), Pastor
patent: 5170044 (1992-12-01), Pastor
patent: 5390251 (1995-02-01), Pastor et al.
patent: 5666421 (1997-09-01), Pastor et al.
Brookner George M.
Cordery Robert A.
Kim Hyung-Kun (Paul)
Pastor Jose
Lemm Brian A.
Melton Michael E.
Pitney Bowes Inc.
Song Ho S.
Wright Norman M.
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