Printed matter – Having revealable concealed information – fraud preventer or... – By removeable material
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-13
2002-05-28
Wellington, A. L. (Department: 3722)
Printed matter
Having revealable concealed information, fraud preventer or...
By removeable material
C229S068100, C229S092000, C229S313000, C229S314000, C281S005000, C283S062000, C283S081000, C283S106000, C428S042100, CD19S003000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06394500
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a printable business form or label that can be adhered to a package, and more particularly to a foldable shipping label that includes ruggedized tear strip features.
The use of shipping labels in the transport of commercial goods is well-known in the art. Typically, such devices include one or more printable surfaces upon which invoice, packing, contents, shipping addresses, receipts and related sundry indicia are placed. The printable surfaces often include a pressure-sensitive adhesive affixed at discrete locations such that the label is removably affixed to a backing sheet. Upon removal from the backing sheet, which is typically a paper liner with a silicone (or similar release material) coating, the label can then be securely fastened to a package to be shipped. One specialized form of shipping label is the folded, or tuck, label, which includes one or more label panels folded underneath another panel, then adhered to a package. By arrangement of one or more folds into a flap-like configuration with perforated peripheries, removal of portions of the label (each possibly including one or more forms of the aforementioned indicia) may be effected even after the label has been adhered to a package. This particular form of shipping label is advantageous because it permits some information to be readily apparent on an outer overlayer panel, while other information remains hidden until the overlayer panel is removed. It additionally permits removal of portions of the information needed by various concerns along the chain of distribution of the package from its point of origin to its final destination.
The traditional approach to facilitating the retrieval of the hidden label panels has been to perforate or score the exposed label surface, such that it tears along a preferred path, thereby providing access to the one or more labels underneath. Additional features to further improve the tearing process have been employed. For example, a pair of parallel perforations can be included to form a “tear strip”. Similarly, a tab may be provided at the end of the tear strip to enable a user to employ a simple grasping movement with the fingers. However, these approaches have disadvantages. For example, since most labels use paper and paper-like products as the printable substrate, the perforations may extend in not only with-grain directions, but cross-grain as well. The anisotropic structural characteristics of the substrate become manifest upon an attempted tear, as tears in the with-grain direction tend to be smooth and straight, while those in the cross-grain direction produce jagged, uneven results, potentially compromising the indicia printed thereon. This problem is exacerbated by the single ply thickness of the tabs or tear strips.
To avoid the occurrence of weakened tear strips, other methods have incorporated multiple plies, typically combining either separate sheets in an aligned arrangement, or continuous or connected sheets that are accordion (or Z-) folded. These methods often include the aforementioned tab and perforation features. These approaches have disadvantages, too, in that to achieve the multiple ply construction, separate printing or aligning steps are required, thus increasing costs. Similarly, when multiple-layers with added adhesive are superimposed one on top of another for cut-sheet applications, such as those where single sheets are loaded into a printer cartridge, the greater thickness corresponding to the portions with adhesive produces an uneven, or leaning, stack. This can limit the number of sheets stackable into the printer cartridge, thereby necessitating increased operator oversight, with concomitant extra expense. Similar problems arise for packaging and refolding, as the increased volume and decreased symmetry make handling more cumbersome.
Consequently, what is needed is a tuck label that promotes low-cost fabrication techniques coupled with a secure, reliable device for accessing vital shipping information applicable to all forms of label stock, including roll, fan fold, continuous and cut sheet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This need is met by the present invention wherein a tuck label without the disadvantages of the prior art is described. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a tuck label with a substrate portion, a single, continuous piece label portion and at least one score line disposed within the label portion is described. The substrate portion further includes a release. surface disposed thereon. The label portion includes first and second faces, each of which can receive printable indicia thereon. Adhesive layers can be deployed at various places on the second face to facilitate removable adhesion between the label and substrate portions. This adhesion scheme may provide substantially full-perimeter closure capability of the label portion upon deployment onto the surface of a shipping package. The label portion outer boundaries are indicated by a plurality of top, bottom and side edges, with the side edges substantially perpendicular to the ones on the top and bottom. As used in conjunction with the present disclosure, the term “substantially” refers to an arrangement of elements or features that, while in theory would be expected to exhibit exact correspondence or behavior, may, in practice embody something slightly less than exact. The label portion is optionally defined by first and second orthogonal patterns, where the first orthogonal pattern runs generally parallel to the axis of the label portion being fed into a label printing device, while the second orthogonal pattern is coplanar with, but rotated 90° with respect to the first. Described as such, the structural makeup of the label portion is similar to most conventional paper products and related “two-dimensional” printable surfaces in that it includes a length dimension (first orthogonal pattern) and a width dimension (second orthogonal pattern). At least one fold line is located on the label, and extends parallel to the second orthogonal pattern to define adjacent print panels above and below the fold line.
The score line is broken up into a series of linearly-extending segments, and helps to divide up the label portion into various regions, including a mount region, a printable surface region and a pull tab region. The mount region occupies at least a part of the outer boundaries of the label, and constitutes the frame-like part of the label portion. Upon removal of the label portion from the substrate portion, the mount region can be fixedly attached to an article being labelled, such that once affixed, it typically becomes a permanent or semipermanent part of the article. To establish this permanent or semipermanent relationship, the mount region includes discrete amounts of the aforementioned adhesive layers disposed on its second face side. The printable surface region occupies a part of the label that is at least partially surrounded by the mount region, and includes the adjacent print panels that straddle the one or more fold lines discussed above. It is upon the adjacent print panels that the various forms of printed indicia commonly associated with the commercial shipping of goods can be placed, either by hand, or by conventional printing processes, such as laser, ink-jet and thermal transfer printing. The pull tab region is disposed between at least a part of the mount region and at least a part of the printable surface region, and is defined by parallel cut lines extending at least most of the length in the first orthogonal pattern direction of the adjacent print panels such that the cut lines are orthogonally intersected by the one or more fold lines. By extending away from both sides of the one or more fold lines, the parallel cut lines form one or more sets of upper and lower strips of a pull tab. At least one of each set of upper and lower strips includes a layer of adhesive. The adhesive layers disposed on the discrete parts of the second face of the label portion facili
Konkol Patrick A.
Nixon Tracy
Carter Monica S.
Killworth, Gottman Hagan & Schaeff, L.L.P.
The Standard Register Company
Wellington A. L.
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