Franking method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A system for franking postal matter with a franking apparatus and for inspecting the franking comprising:
- a franking apparatus that franks postal matter, having a printing unit a machine-readable date stamp onto items of postal matter, a central unit containing a fee module, storing and debiting postage fees to be included in said date stamp, and having a print control module that controls said printing unit;
a postage fee apparatus engageable in a communication protocol with said franking apparatus that makes postage fee units electronically available to said franking apparatus as electronic coins each having unique coin identification information embodied therein, said electronic coins being entered in said communication protocol into said fee module of said central unit and said unique coin identification information being incorporated in said date stamp on one of said items together with the electronic coin associated with the unique coin identification information by said printing unit, to individualize the date stamp compared to other date stamps; and
an inspection unit remote from said franking apparatus that inspects said items, including a memory that stores respective date stamps on successively inspected items of postal matter, by comparing the unique coin identification information in the date stamp on a currently inspected item of postal matter with said stored date stamps to determine whether the date stamp on the currently inspected item of postal matter has been previously used to determine, from said unique coin identification information, whether said date stamp has been multiply used.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In a method and system and franking apparatus for franking postal matter and for inspection of the franking, postage fees are stored and debited in electronic form, and a fee stamp and a machine-readable date stamp containing encrypted data are applied to the postal matter. In order to satisfy high security demands to be met at a low cost, and to allow realization on a standard computer with a printer without additional hardware, an individual date stamp, distinguishable from the date stamps generated for other pieces of mail is generated for each piece of mail and is applied to the piece of mail. An inspection for multiple employment of postage fees and/or date stamps ensues on the basis of the date stamp. This inspection includes comparing a date stamp to be inspected to previously used date stamps stored in a data bank. Defrauders thus can be identified who, without paying, attempt to generate frankings or to multiply employ frankings, for example by copying.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for franking postal matter with a franking apparatus and for inspecting the franking comprising:
- a franking apparatus that franks postal matter, having a printing unit a machine-readable date stamp onto items of postal matter, a central unit containing a fee module, storing and debiting postage fees to be included in said date stamp, and having a print control module that controls said printing unit;
a postage fee apparatus engageable in a communication protocol with said franking apparatus that makes postage fee units electronically available to said franking apparatus as electronic coins each having unique coin identification information embodied therein, said electronic coins being entered in said communication protocol into said fee module of said central unit and said unique coin identification information being incorporated in said date stamp on one of said items together with the electronic coin associated with the unique coin identification information by said printing unit, to individualize the date stamp compared to other date stamps; and
an inspection unit remote from said franking apparatus that inspects said items, including a memory that stores respective date stamps on successively inspected items of postal matter, by comparing the unique coin identification information in the date stamp on a currently inspected item of postal matter with said stored date stamps to determine whether the date stamp on the currently inspected item of postal matter has been previously used to determine, from said unique coin identification information, whether said date stamp has been multiply used. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- a franking apparatus that franks postal matter, having a printing unit a machine-readable date stamp onto items of postal matter, a central unit containing a fee module, storing and debiting postage fees to be included in said date stamp, and having a print control module that controls said printing unit;
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5. A method for franking mail pieces and for inspecting the franking, comprising the steps of:
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obtaining postage fee units as electronic coins in an electronic protocol between an electronic coin source and a user of said electronic coins that individualizes each electronic coin by embodying information in each electronic coin that is unique for that electronic coin; electronically storing said electronic coins in a device allocated to said user; franking mail pieces with said device with respective postage fees comprised of at least one of said postage fee units, and debiting said electronic coins in said device as said postage fee units are consumed as said mail pieces are franked; when franking each of said mail pieces, applying a machine-readable date stamp thereto at said device that includes an individualized electronic coin used for a postage fee unit consumed for franking that mail piece; electronically storing the electronic coin in the date stamp on the mail piece; and inspecting the mail piece at a location remote from said device inspecting subsequent mail pieces by comparing the electronic coin in the date stamp thereon to the stored electronic coin to determine whether the electronic coin in the date stamp on the mail piece has been multiply used. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification