Registers – Records – Conductive
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2001-04-03
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Conductive
C235S486000, C235S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209791
ABSTRACT:
PARTIAL WAIVER OF COPYRIGHT PURSUANT TO 1077 O.G. 22 (MAR. 20, 1987)
(C) Copyright, Dallas Semiconductor Corporation 1994. All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
Portions of the material in the specification and drawings of this patent application are also subject to protection under the maskwork registration laws of the United States and of other countries.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the owner of the copyright and maskwork rights has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and maskwork rights whatsoever.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application hereby incorporates by reference the following co-assigned issued patents and patent applications, which describe in great detail the operation of the technology surrounding Touch Memory™ processes and systems, which was developed by employees at and/or assigned to Dallas Semiconductor Corporation:
Ser. No./
Filing Date/
Patent No.
Issue Date
DSC Case No.
Authors
4,862,310
04-29-88/08-29-89
DSC-77
Harrington
5,210,846
05-15-89/05-11-93
DSC-83
Lee
08/019,932
02-19-93
DSC-83A
Lee
4,982,371
05-15-89/01-01-91
DSC-85
Lee et al.
07/632,227
12-20-90
DSC-85A
Lee et al.
5,091,771
05-15-89/11-18-91
DSC-86
Bolan et al.
4,972,377
05-15-89/11-20-90
DSC-107
Lee
5,191,554
08-27-91/03-02-93
DSC-107A
Lee
5,181,091
09-16-91/01-19-93
DSC-153A
Harrington et al.
4,945,217
05-15-89/07-31-90
DSC-157
Bolan
5,025,141
07-17-90/06-18-91
DSC-157A
Bolan
4,948,954
05-15-89/08-14-90
DSC-158
Dias
4,983,820
08-14-90/01-08-91
DSC-158A
Dias
5,045,675
05-15-89/09-03-91
DSC-159
Steve Curry
4,995,004
05-15-89/02-19-91
DSC-160
Lee
07/657,717
02-19-91
DSC-160A
Lee
07/725,793
07-09-91
DSC-175
Curry et al.
07/998,978
12-30-92
DSC-175A
Curry et al.
07/527,492
05-22-90
DSC-268
Bolan et al.
5,206,905
11-19-90/04-27-93
DSC-303
Lee et al.
07/615,615
11-19-90
DSC-304
Lee et al.
5,226,137
11-19-90/07-06-93
DSC-305
Lee et al.
07/882,244
05-08-92
DSC-306
Lee
07/631,929
12-19-90
DSC-316
Curry et al.
07/728,230
07-10-91
DSC-317
Pearson et al.
07/727,618
07-10-91
DSC-319
Williams et al.
07/727,619
07-10-91
DSC-322
Rodriguez et al.
07/727,638
07-10-91
DSC-324
Ni et al.
08/103,724
08-09-93
DSC-352
Pearson et al.
07/727,639
07-10-91
DSC-353
Bolan et al.
5,166,545
07-10-91/11-24-92
DSC-356
Harrington
08/022,258
02-24-93
DSC-377
Bolan et al.
08/031,776
03-15-93
DSC-377A
Bolan et al.
08/015,506
02/09/93
DSC-393
Harrington et al.
08/234,210
04/28/94
DSC-427
Fekete et al.
This application also hereby incorporates by reference the following co-assigned issued patents and patent applications, which describe in great detail the operation of the technology surrounding the DS5000 and DS5002 microprocessor processes and systems, which was also developed by employees at and/or assigned to Dallas Semiconductor corporation:
Ser. No./
Filing Date/
Patent No.
Issue Date
DSC Case No.
Authors
4,857,767
8/15/89
DSC-59
Little et al.
5,237,699
8/17/93
DSC-60
Little et al.
4,908,790
3/13/90
DSC-61
Little et al.
07/714,973
6/13/91
DSC-63
Little et al.
4,947,477
8/07/90
DSC-64
Little et al.
4,890,263
12/26/89
DSC-79
Little
4,885,716
12/05/89
DSC-79
Little
07/573,585
08/27/90
DSC-124
Grider et al.
08/174,584
12/28/93
DSC-124A
Grider et al.
4,168,396
09/18/79
DSC-169
Best
4,278,837
07/14/81
DSC-170
Best
4,319,079
03/09/82
DSC-171
Best
4,433,207
02/21/84
DSC-172
Best
4,465,901
08/14/84
DSC-173
Best
In addition, Applicants also incorporate by reference the data sheet for the DS1982, which is included in the Appendix A, the data sheet for DS5002, which is included in the Appendix B, and the Book of DS199x Touch Memory™ Standards and Book of DS19xx Touch Memory™ Standards, which are both published by and available from Dallas Semiconductor Corporation.
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic devices, and, more particularly, to portable semiconductor circuits used to store monetary equivalent data.
BACKGROUND
Numerous examples and applications of monetary equivalent data exist in today's society. For example, the fare payment system used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (hereafter referred to as “BART”) system in San Francisco is an example of an application in which monetary equivalent data is read and written electronically. In this system, the user can obtain a transit ticket and deposit any desired amount of money into it from an automatic vending machine. The information is stored in the ticket magnetically in the form of encoded data written on a magnetic stripe. Each time the user travels from one place to another, the system deducts the fare from the amount represented by the magnetically encoded data, thus, reducing the value of the ticket. When the value of the ticket is nearly exhausted, it can be restored to a high value by inserting it again into an automatic vending machine and depositing additional funds. The BART system eliminates the need for handling money and making change at the point of entry to the transit system, thereby reducing labor costs and increasing efficiency.
A similar advantage can be realized in many other circumstances where an electronically readable and alterable “token” can eliminate the costs and delays associated with money handling at the point of use. Such a token might therefore be used as a meal ticket on a college campus, as a ride ticket at an amusement park, or wherever tickets or tokens are now used to speed monetary payments and/or eliminate unnecessary labor.
The system described above, however, suffers from at least three significant disadvantages. First, paper tickets with magnetic stripes deposited on them are subject to wrinkling or tearing which can cause loss of the monetary equivalent data. Also, the magnetic stripes are subject to erasure by environmental magnetic fields, even if the paper carrier and magnetic material are physically intact. Second, since magnetic recording is a read/write technology, it is possible for a technologically sophisticated person to read the contents of the magnetic stripe when the ticket has a large monetary value, use the ticket until the value is nearly gone, then rewrite the original data into the ticket to restore its original value. It is not necessary for the person to understand the encoding of the monetary data in order to do this. Therefore, the use of a read/write technology makes the tickets vulnerable to counterfeiting. Third, the magnetic recording technology requires uniform motion of the magnetic material across the read/write heads in order to read and write data reliably. This makes it necessary to use a relatively complex mechanical ticket-handling mechanism to read, debit, and rewrite the monetary equivalent data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONS
A secure monetary system comprises an electronic module and equipment to access the electronic module. The electronic module comprising a substantially token-shaped module and secure memory circuitry to store monetary information. The secure memory positioned in the substantially token-shaped module. The equipment accesses and manipulates the monetary information stored in the memory in the electronic module. The equipment comprises memory to store control and encryption programs and the memory is coupled to a microprocessor, which is also coupled to the electronic module and a control panel. The microprocessor is secure.
The disclosed systems and processes preferably incorporating Add-Only Touch Memory™ technology described above has the following special characteristics which make it uniquely suitable for applications requiring secure crediting, debiting, and portable storage of monetary equivalent data. First, a unique, unalterable registration number which allows the data on each
Bolan Michael L.
Curry Stephen M.
Dallas Semiconductor Corporation
Jenkens & Gilchrist a Professional Corporation
Le Thien M.
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