Typewriting machines – Including control of format by programmed-control-system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-12
2001-06-12
Hilten, John S. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Including control of format by programmed-control-system
C400S070000, C400S061000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244763
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention is in the field of labels, and more particularly a special purpose label arrangement set for use in PC postage that has a label portion for postage indicia, an addressee label portion, and a sender label portion, and a method for printing this special purpose label arrangement with the necessary information. The special purpose label arrangement set is more generally applicable to printing with a variety of information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has responded to recent technological developments in the telecommunication and computer field by developing its Information Based Indicia Program (IBIP.) The IBIP involves the development of new technology to produce new forms of postage. In so-called PC Postage, a user can purchase postage credit, and print the postage in the form of PC Postage onto a label or directly onto the mail piece. The PCT Postage includes a human readable portion and a 2-dimensional barcode portion. The human readable portion includes the postage value, mail class, the date, and optionally a logo. The barcode portion is intended to help thwart fraud, and includes information about the mail piece including the destination ZIP code, the amount of postage applied, the date and time the postage was applied, and a digital signature so that the USPS can validate the authenticity of the postage.
In one preferred embodiment of PC Postage, a user will subscribe to a third party central server location, such as Stamps.com (of Santa Monica, Calif.), and by using postage software made available by the central server location, postage value can be downloaded to the user's computer. The user can then print the postage indicia, by an ordinary laser or ink jet printer, directly onto the mail piece itself (onto a standard business envelope), or onto a label to be applied to the mail piece. This postage software works in conjunction with other software programs, such as word processing, accounting, database, and contact management software to allow a user to conveniently print out PC Postage at the same time that addressee and bar code information is printed (and in the case of envelope printing also the sender's return address.)
In order to permit the sophisticated mail handling and optical reading equipment at the USPS to properly interpret the PC Postage and addressee information, it is critical that the postage indicia be applied properly. Indeed, the USPS has established strict guidelines directed to the margins, label sizes, and placement of the Postage Indicia, and the size, placement, and other characteristics of the POSTNET (
POS
tal
N
umeric
E
ncoding
T
echnique) bar codes, and any facing identification mark (FEM) on mail pieces. These guidelines are contained in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) and Title 39, Code of Federal Register (CFR), Part 111.
The various typically available laser and ink jet printers differ in their ability to print close to the edge of sheets of self-adhesive labels fed into the printer, and typically cannot print within 0.635 cm to 1.27 cm (0.25 inch to 0.5 inch) of each edge of the sheet. In their most common embodiment, these home, office and small laser and ink jet printers are designed to accept sheets having a maximum width of 21.59 cm (8.5 inches), or in the case of wide format printers, about 27.94 cm (11 inches.) However, the majority of the home and office printers are of the 21.59 cm (8.5 inches) variety, and accordingly most self-adhesive labels sheets have a width of 21.59 cm (8.5 inches) or less. To accommodate a variety of printers (and their different print-free margin requirements), most self-adhesive labels are provided on sheets that have relatively wide margins. Unfortunately, formatting self-adhesive labels with overly wide margins reduces the footprint available for the labels and therefore reduces the number and/or size labels that can be provided per sheet.
E-Stamp.com's Internet Postage starter kit includes samples of self-adhesive labels from Avery® identified as Postage & Address Labels #2869 and #2866, and labels for template #2859. These label sheets include the words “Patent Pending”. The #2866 labels consist of single enlarged labels with fluorescent strips on the top and right side edges. The #2866 label design is stated as being large enough to print postage and addresses on labels for packages. The #2859 and #2869 labels consist of two labels per set, with fluorescent strips on the top and right side edges of the upper and larger label in each of the two labels per set. The larger upper label in these sets is for the postage indicia, and the smaller label is for the addressee. There is no provision for printing of the sender's address along with the postage indicia label and addressee label.
As noted above, the postage indicia includes such information as the destination ZIP code. It would be highly useful to have a special purpose label arrangement that has a label portion for the postage indicia, an addressee label portion, and a sender label portion, so that during the printing of postage indicia onto a self-adhesive label, additional labels for the addressee and sender can also be simultaneously printed by the user, as a set, thereby eliminating the need to print sender labels in a separate step. Furthermore, since some users include additional unique identifying information along with mail piece, (such as account numbers), which can be placed in the vicinity of the sender's address on the mail piece, it would be beneficial to print all three labels in a single step.
It would be convenient to provide a method to permit printing of a special purpose label arrangement that has a label portion for the postage indicia, an addressee label portion, and a sender label portion in a single step.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5413037 (1995-05-01), Auslander et al.
patent: 5829895 (1998-11-01), Hayashi et al.
patent: 6010156 (2000-01-01), Block
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Hilten John S.
Nolan, Jr. Charles H.
Stamps.Com
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