IP Library Granted Patent US 10,562,334
Granted Patent B2
US 10,562,334 · App. 15/899,062 · Granted Feb 18, 2020

Security documents with text printing security feature

Inventor: Frantz Mercier (Hollister, CA)
Assignee: ASSA ABLOY AB
B42D25/405B41M3/14B42D15/00B42D25/30
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,562,334
App. No.
15/899,062
Granted
Feb 18, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

Printing or engraving or other techniques and resulting security documents can help inhibit or prevent tampering or forgery, such as by providing a strikethrough path through characters in a word. A characteristic of the strikethrough path can depend upon a characteristic of the word. For example, the strikethrough path can alternatingly ascend and descend through successive words in a sequence, such that the location of the strikethrough path within a particular character depends on that particular character, upon a location of the character within the word, or both. The strikethrough path can be constructed such that if characters are copied or excised and re-arranged, such re-arrangement is evident by misalignment of one or more portions of the strikethrough path that would otherwise be aligned in the original document.

Claims (29)

1. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a substrate;

a first sequence of characters, arranged in a first word on the substrate, the characters of the first word defining first contrast regions, optically contrasting the substrate; and

a first strikethrough path extending visibly through the first contrast regions of all individual characters of the first word, the first strikethrough path extending through the first word at a first non-parallel angle relative a baseline of the first word from one of the baseline or a topline of the first word at a first character of the first word to the other of the baseline or topline of the first word at a last character of the first word;

wherein such first non-parallel angle is determined as a function of a length of the first word; and

wherein the first strikethrough path continues from the other of the baseline or topline of the first word at the last character through a second word, adjacent to the first word.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the first strikethrough path defines a second contrast region within the characters, the second contrast region optically contrasting the first contrast regions.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 2 , wherein the first strikethrough path defines one or more first contrast regions extending between adjacent characters.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 3 , wherein the first strikethrough path defines a first contrast region in an interior region of a character.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the first strikethrough path is undulating.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the article of manufacture includes a security document including the substrate, the first sequence of characters, and the first strikethrough path, wherein the first strikethrough path inhibits tampering or forgery by re-arranging copied or excised characters of the first word into new words, with such re-arranging resulting in unalignment of two or more portions of the first strikethrough path.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , comprising:

a second sequence of characters, arranged in a second word on the substrate, the characters of the second word defining second contrast regions, the second word having a length different than the first word; and

a second strikethrough path extending visibly through the second contrast regions of all individual characters of the second word, the second strikethrough path extending through the second word at a second non-parallel angle relative a baseline of the second word, wherein the second non-parallel angle is different than the first non-parallel angle;

wherein such second non-parallel angle is determined as a function of the length of the second word.

8. A security document, comprising:

a substrate;

a sequence of characters, arranged in a word on the substrate, the characters defining first contrast regions, optically contrasting the substrate; and

a strikethrough path extending visibly through the first contrast regions of all individual characters of the word, the strikethrough path extending through the word at a non-parallel angle relative a baseline of the word from one of the baseline or a topline of the word at a first character of the word to the other of the baseline or topline of the word at a last character of the word;

wherein such non-parallel angle is determined as a function of a length of the word;

wherein the strikethrough path continues from the other of the baseline or topline of the word at the last character through a second word, adjacent to the word; and

wherein the combination of a particular character and the strikethrough path through the particular character is characteristic of a position of the particular character within the word.

9. The security document of claim 8 , wherein the strikethrough path is undulating.

10. A method of printing or otherwise forming characters onto a substrate in a manner to inhibit tampering or forgery by re-arranging copied or excised characters into new words, the method comprising:

printing or otherwise forming onto the substrate a sequence of characters, arranged in a word on the substrate, the characters defining first contrast regions, optically contrasting the substrate; and

printing or otherwise forming a strikethrough path extending visibly through the first contrast regions of all individual characters of the word, the strikethrough path extending through the word at a non-parallel angle relative a baseline of the word from one of the baseline or a topline of the word at a first character of the word to the other of the baseline or topline of the word at a last character of the word;

wherein such non-parallel angle is determined as a function of a length of the word, such that a rearrangement of characters of the word into new words results in unalignment of two or more portions of the strikethrough path; and

wherein the strikethrough path continues from the other of the baseline or topline of the word at the last character through a second word, adjacent to the word.

11. The method of claim 10 , comprising printing or otherwise forming the strikethrough path with the strikethrough path undulating.

Assignments (3)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Oct 23, 2025
From: HID GLOBAL CID SAS
To: TOPPAN SECURITY SAS
Reel/Frame 073225/0558 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 6, 2023
From: ASSA ABLOY AB
To: HID GLOBAL CID SAS
Reel/Frame 065779/0601 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 19, 2018
From: MERCIER, FRANTZ
To: ASSA ABLOY AB
Reel/Frame 044965/0817 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20190255875A1 · Aug 22, 2019