CODING SYMBOLOGY AND A METHOD FOR PRINTING SAME

• US 20070125870A1
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Joseph Mase, Margaret Trinidad, Scott Edwards
• Original Assignee: Joseph Mase, Margaret Trinidad, Scott Edwards
• Inventors: Edwards, Scott, Trinidad, Margaret, Mase, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US11/615,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20070125870A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 3/14 Security printing securities B42D25/29
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/382 Contact thermal transfer or sublimation processes sublistatic printing using a pre-formed image B41M5/035; ink-, dye- or pigment-receptive coatings B41M5/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/126 by photographic or thermographic registration recording apparatus for measuring instruments G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06009 with optically detectable marking G06K19/063, G06K19/08 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06046 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06056 the marking comprising a further embedded marking, e.g. a 1D bar code with the black bars containing a smaller sized coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1434 Barcodes with supplemental or add-on codes

Abstract

The present invention provides forming a coding symbology by disposing a plurality of light-reflecting segments separated by spaces on a substrate. The coding symbology represents fixed information and variable information.

Claims

1-32. -32. (canceled)

33. A method of transferring a negative image bar code onto a flexible web comprising the steps of:

providing a flexible transparent plastic web forming all or part of a container,

providing a printer for transferring a plurality of light-reflecting segments onto the web in response to a signal representative of the plurality of light-reflecting segments,

transferring the signal to the printer, and

transferring the plurality of light-reflecting segments directly onto the web, wherein the transparent plastic web defines spaces that separate the plurality of light-reflecting segments, wherein the web that defines the spaces also itself defines a plurality light-absorbing segments, wherein the light-reflecting segments and the light-absorbing segments define a negative image bar code that is detected by a reader, wherein the negative image bar code represents fixed information and variable information, and wherein the variable information comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of, lot number, batch number, expiration date, serial number, production time, price, and concentration.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the printer is a thermal transfer printer, a hot-stamp printer, a laser printer, an inkjet printer, or a flexographic printer.

35. A medical container comprised of flexible transparent plastic film and having a bar code comprising:

a negative image bar code disposed directly on the flexible medical container film,

wherein the film of the medical container itself defines at least two spaces in the bar code, the spaces absorbing light,

wherein the negative image bar code is detectable with a bar code reader,

wherein the negative image bar code comprises fixed and variable information, and

wherein the variable information comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of;

lot number, batch number, expiration date, serial number, production time, price, and concentration.

36. The medical container of claim 35 wherein the spaces have a maximum reflectance of about twenty-five percent.

37. The medical container of claim 35 wherein the negative image bar code comprises a symbology selected from the group consisting of:

Code 16K, Code 39, Code 49, Codabar, Code 128, UPC-E, UPC-A, EAN8, EAN-13, Reduced Space Symbology, composite symbol, PDF-417, and Interleaved 2-of-5.

38. The medical container of claim 35 wherein the negative image bar code is a two-dimensional symbology.