Taggants for products and method of taggant identification
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A process for identifying bulk particulate matter comprising:
- a. providing a quantity of the bulk particulate matter which has been marked with a coded microparticle taggant material adhesively bound to the bulk particulate material by a releasable adhesive material and coded with identifying information;
b. activating release of the adhesive material to release the microparticle taggant from the bulk particulate matter;
c. isolating the released taggant from bulk particulate matter; and
d. reading the code from the isolated microparticle taggant.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The tagging of articles is performed by applying microparticle taggants to the articles by means of a coating that adheres the particles to the surface of the articles. The microparticle taggants have a specific identifiable code or other quality. The coating material and microparticles are applied to the exterior surface of the articles and dried or cured thereon. The microparticles may have a magnetically attractive quality for purpose of collection of the particles for analysis. The microparticles are washed from the surface of the articles and collected in a vessel. The microparticles in the vessel are assembled or collected by means of a magnet.
125 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A process for identifying bulk particulate matter comprising:
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a. providing a quantity of the bulk particulate matter which has been marked with a coded microparticle taggant material adhesively bound to the bulk particulate material by a releasable adhesive material and coded with identifying information;
b. activating release of the adhesive material to release the microparticle taggant from the bulk particulate matter;
c. isolating the released taggant from bulk particulate matter; and
d. reading the code from the isolated microparticle taggant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 12)
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6. A process for identifying seed comprising:
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a. providing a quantity of the seed having a microparticle taggant material adhesively bound thereto by a releasable seed coating material, the taggant being releasable from the coating material upon exposure to a solvent, the taggant comprising a magnetic material and being further characterized in that;
the taggant comprises a plurality of microparticles having two or more distinguishable marker layers corresponding to a predetermined numerical identifier code, the plurality of particles comprises a plurality of microparticle sets of at least one microparticle, each microparticle set is characterized by a specific marker layer combination different from each other microparticle set, and the combination of microparticle sets employed in said taggant collectively forms said numerical identifier code;
b. subjecting the seed to a said solvent to release the microparticle taggant from the seed;
c. magnetically isolating the released taggant from bulk particulate matter; and
d. reading the isolated microparticle taggant. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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8. A field kit for use in identifying a bulk particulate material marked with a coded magnetically attractive microparticle taggant material adhesively bound to the bulk particulate material by a solvent releasable adhesive material and coded with identifying information, the kit comprising:
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a container for holding a sample quantity of the bulk particulate material and a solvent for releasing the adhesive material;
a magnet; and
an optical enhancer operable provide an enlarged image of a sample of microparticles. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 13)
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- 14. Bulk agricultural seed having a microparticle taggant material adhesively bound thereto by a seed coating which is soluble or degradable in a liquid solvent to release the taggant.
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19. A method of identifying articles comprising the steps of:
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providing a plurality of articles, the articles having a plurality of mieroparticles adhered thereto by means of a coating material, the microparticles having a coding associated therewith for purposes of identification of the articles;
collecting a sample of the articles from the plurality;
depositing the sample in a collection vessel;
washing the sample with a liquid to remove at least a portion of the microparticles adhered to the article sample;
collecting the wash liquid and removed particles in the vessel;
removing the washed article sample from the vessel;
assembling the microparticles washed from the article sample; and
reading the coding on the microparticles and correlating the coding to the associated quality corresponding to the coding. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. A kit for collecting a plurality of microparticles magnetically attractive, the microparticles applied as a taggant to articles, the kit comprising:
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a collection vessel;
a sieve for holding and retaining a quantity of articles having taggant microparticles thereon while also permitting microparticles to pass into the collection vessel during a washing operation;
magnetic means at the base of the collection vessel for assisting in the settling of microparticles within the wash liquid; and
a magnetic probe for collecting microparticles.
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23. A process for marking an article by applying thereto a taggant, a marking formulation comprising a taggant, or an article marked with a taggant, wherein the taggant comprises a plurality of microparticles having two or more distinguishable marker layers corresponding to a predetermined numeric code, the plurality of particles comprises a plurality of microparticle sets of at least one microparticle, each microparticle set is characterized by a specific marker layer combination different from each other microparticle set, the combination of microparticle sets employed in said taggant collectively forms said numeric code,
the invention characterized in that: the microparticle sets employed in the taggant include at least one datum marker layer coded to include place information and at least two value marker layers coded to specify a value within the place, the at least one datum marker layer being readily distinguishable from the value marker layers and functioning to identify an orientation of the value marker layers. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
- 33. A process for marking an article by applying thereto a taggant, a marking formulation comprising a taggant, or an article marked with a taggant, wherein the taggant comprises a microparticle having three or more distinguishable marker layers corresponding to a predetermined numeric code, said marker layers comprising at least one datum marker layer coded to include place information and at least two value marker layers coded to specify a value within the place, the at least one datum marker layer being readily distinguishable from the value marker layers and functioning to identify an orientation of the value marker layers.
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35. A process for marking an article by applying thereto a taggant, a marking formulation comprising a taggant, or an article marked with a taggant, wherein the taggant comprises a microparticle having two distinguishable marker layers corresponding to a predetermined numeric code, the combination of said two marker layers determining both a numeric place and a value within said place in a binary numbering system.
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36. A process for marking an article by applying thereto a taggant, a marking formulation comprising a taggant, wherein the taggant comprises a microparticle having two distinguishable marker layers of different color characteristics wherein the paired combination of color characteristics provided by said two layers codes for a numeric value.
Specification