Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Imaged product – Antifraud or antitampering
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-04
2001-08-28
Angebranndt, Martin (Department: 1756)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Imaged product
Antifraud or antitampering
C430S001000, C430S002000, C359S002000, C283S088000, C283S086000, C283S901000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280891
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a procedure for marking documents or products, implementing optical markers such as diffraction gratis, such as for example holograms.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of holograms for the authentication of documents is known in the state of the art. For example, European patent No. EP-79 100 626 describes an identification card with a hologram and also a manufacturing procedure and a method for recording the hologram on the identification card According to this document in the prior art, the identity card carries readable information and at least one hologram containing the readable information, with the hologram being recorded adjacent to other information on a common recording layer. The other information, which is recorded on the common recording layer, is the readable information
Because the implementation of a hologram requires a significant amount of know-how and means that usually are not available to counterfeiters, the security of documents marked in this way is improved.
Another document in the prior art, i.e., Utility Certificate No. FR-92 02 849, discloses a procedure for the marking of bodies (i.e., items) and a device for the identification of bodies marked in accordance with the said procedure,
This procedure is characterized essentially by the fact that it consists of implementing, on a substrate, a first hologram of a first object that is readable under white light, and of implementing on the same substrate a second hologram, known as a “Fourier hologram”, of a second object. The second object consists of a plurality of point sources of light, which sources are distributed in a random manner, and further involves bonding the said substrate to the body. The invention also relates to a device that allows the identification of bodies when they have been marked in accordance with the procedure.
Another document in the prior art, i.e., French patent No. FR-2 671 032, as issued to the present applicant, relates to the protection of documents against counterfeiting. This protection relates more particularly to a non-counterfeitable layered document that includes a substrate with a marking region that has two surfaces and that carries information which forms a relief pattern on one of its surfaces and hollows or recesses on its other surface, and that also includes a hologram which carries a holographic interference pattern that covers at least part of the surface of the marking region which carries the information forming hollows or recesses. A layer of adhesive ensures the fixation of the hologram to the marking region.
Another document in the prior art, i.e, European patent No. EP-80 104 962, describes an identity card that contains information in holographic form and that includes a substrate which serves as the basic element of the card. A transparent layer is deposited on the substrate and forms a flat optical waveguide, and another layer is placed on the said waveguide and includes at least one hologram containing a piece of information. The said patent also describes a light-coupling device which consists of another hologram that corresponds to a particular predetermined reference light source, and by means of which only one homologous light wave, which corresponds to the particular reference light source, may be injected by coupling into the waveguide.
Overall, these procedures are satisfactory for securing documents that receive information beforehand, in printed form.
However, the information fiction and the authentification function are completely independent and are implemented in two different regions of the document. The result is the possibility of fraud through the modification of the information present on a document that also carries an authentic marked region.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the present invention is to remedy this disadvantage by proposing a more certain (i.e. robust) security marking procedure.
For this purpose, the invention relates first of all to a procedure for marking documents, characterized by the fact that the said procedure consists of applying to a substrate a multi-layer optical complex that consists of identification means such as bar-codes, a photograph, or characters, and that further consists of authentification means, with the two means being superimposed in a way that does not allow them to be separated without destroying the optical complex, and at least without destroying the authentification means.
The authentification means preferably consist of a diffracting optical marker. As used within the context of the present invention, the term “diffracting optical marker” should be understood as referring to diffracting means whose optical behavior, when illuminated by a monochromatic beam of light, is specific. In particular, a diffraction grating or a hologram is considered to constitute a diffracting “optical marker” which, depending on the degree of complexity, will form, in response to monochromatic illumination, a set of luminous points, luminous lines, or, in the case of the hologram, an image.
The identification means are implemented for example, by printing with an ink, and particularly by printing with an ink that is transparent in the visible spectrum and opaque in the infrared range.
The identification means are masked from sight (i.e., not visible), and therefore do not admit of reproduction by means available to the general public, such as photocopiers. Thus the security of the product or of the document is reinforced.
In accordance with a first variant, the identification means are printed on the object to be marked and authenticated. The resulting printed region is then covered with an optical complex formed by a film overlay that allows passage of at least one wavelength band that reads the identification means, and onto which is applied, in an indissociable manner, authentification means formed by a diffracting optical marker.
In accordance with a second variant, an element is prepared that is suitable for being applied indissociably to the object to be marked and authenticatd, for example, in the form of a label, a strip prepared on a spool and glued to the substrate, or a filament inserted into the document. This element consists of an optical complex that includes a lower layer on which the identification means are printed. The resulting printed region is then covered by a film overlay that allows passage of at least one wavelength band that reads the identification means, and by authentification means formed by a diffracting optical marker.
The film overlay is preferably opaque in the visible speck and has a narrow passband in the infrared.
In accordance with a preferred variant, the film overlay covering the printed region has a spectral window the infrared range and the diffraction grating is recorded in such a way as to form at least one diffraction pattern, with the printed image under the film overlay being correlated with the diffraction pattern.
The product marked in accordance with the procedure in accordance with the invention does not allow the information to be changed without altering the means for check the authenticity of the document.
Several optical markers may also be juxtaposed.
The invention also relates to a secured document that includes identification means and authentification means, such as a diffracting optical maker, characterized by the fact that the said document has a printed region that is suitable for being read by reflection in a first wavelength band, and that is covered by a film overlay that is opaque in the visible spectrum, with the film overlay having a transmission window that includes the said first wavelength band, and by a transparent reflective layer, with the film overlay covering the printed region in an indissociable manner.
The invention also relates to means for marking and securing a product, with the said means consisting of a substrate that has a printed region that is suitable for being read by reflection in a first wavelength band, and that
Daniel Francoise
Souparis Hugues
Angebranndt Martin
Hologram Industries (S.A.)
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP
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