System for identifying authenticating and tracking manufactured articles

This invention relates to a system for identifying, authenticating and tracking articles of manufacture throughout their manufacturing and distribution channels. The foregoing system utilizes: manufacturing meters that are located at authorized manufacturing locations and produce encrypted data that is uniquely associated with each manufactured article; a printer located at the authorized manufacturing locations so that the printer will print the information encrypted by the meter, which encrypted information is affixed to the manufactured article; a data center coupled to the manufacturing meters and located at a site remote from the manufacturing meters; means for producing information that identifies the manufactured articles; and a plurality of means located where the authenticity of the manufactured articles are checked by comparing the encrypted information on the article with the information produced that identifies the article.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates generally to the field of authenticating the origin 
of manufactured articles. More particularly, it relates to a system for 
affixing information relating to the origin of manufactured articles and 
authenticating that the articles are the same manufactured articles that 
information has been affixed thereto. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Bar codes have been used in a wide variety of applications as a source for 
information. Typically bar codes are used at a point-of-sale terminal in 
merchandising for pricing and inventory control. Bar codes are also used 
in controlling personnel access systems, mailing systems, and in 
manufacturing for work-in process and inventory control systems, etc. The 
bar codes themselves represent alphanumeric characters by series of 
adjacent strips of various widths, i.e. the universal product code. 
A bar code is a set of binary numbers. It consists of black bars and white 
spaces. A wide black bar space signifies a one and a thin black bar or 
space signifies a zero. The binary numbers stand for decimal numbers or 
letters. There are several different kinds of bar codes. In each one, a 
number, letter or other character is formed by a certain number or bars 
and spaces. 
Bar code reading systems or scanners have been developed to read bar codes. 
The bar code may be read by having a light beam translated across the bar 
code and a portion of the light illuminating the bar code is reflected and 
collected by a scanner. The intensity of the reflected light is 
proportional to the reflectance of the area illuminated by the light beam. 
Thus, the scanners read the difference between the light and dark bars by 
reading the absences of reflected light. This light is converted into an 
electric current signal and then the signal is decoded. 
Bar codes have been affixed to many different types of documents and 
articles, so that they may be read by a machine, thereby reducing labor 
costs. Documents that include bar codes have been issued by governmental 
agencies, financial institutions, brokerage houses, etc., that authorize 
the holder of such documents to perform authorized tasks or grant rights 
to the holder of such a document. Examples of such documents are drivers 
licenses, entry access badges, identification cards, etc. Articles that 
include bar codes have been issued by many different types of manufactures 
and processors for inventory control. 
Currently, United States Companies are victimized by a crime called export 
diversion. Diverters buy premium trademarked articles, at deeply 
discounted prices that are intended for orders bound for untapped foreign 
markets. During shipment, the articles are returned to the United States 
at foreign ports and illegally resold to dealers and retailers in the 
United States for a sizable profit. Hence, depriving the original 
manufacture of domestic sales. 
The problem of identifying the origin of articles may extend to a very 
broad class of articles and other objects. Thus, it may be desirable to 
establish that particular articles or items have been inspected, or passed 
through customs, or were produced by a particular company. Similarly, it 
may be desirable to have secure evidence of the origin of a component of 
manufactured articles. 
Another problem of the prior art is that famous brand manufactures are 
losing sales and having there reputation tarnished by unscrupulous 
manufactures who make and sell inferior manufactured articles bearing the 
famous manufactures brand name to unsuspecting consumers. 
Manufactures who do not have the manufacturing capacity to produce their 
entire product, often subcontract the production of components of the 
product or the entire product to other manufactures. Sometimes, the 
subcontractor produces a different quantity of the articles that was 
contracted for and sells the additionally produced articles through 
unauthorized channels. When the above happens the manufacturer lacking 
manufacturing capacity is deprived of lost sales. 
An additional problem of the prior art is that there is a need to track 
manufactured articles from the moment and point of the articles 
manufacture to the moment and point of the sale of the articles. Articles 
are manufactured in a multitude of international locations and distributed 
through many distribution channels. Thus, it is difficult to maintain a 
central data base that contains all of the needed or wanted information 
that is associated with the articles. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a 
system for identifying, authenticating and tracking articles of 
manufacture or manufactured goods throughout their manufacturing and 
distribution channels. The foregoing system utilizes: manufacturing meters 
that are located at authorized manufacturing locations and produce 
encrypted data that is uniquely associated with each manufactured article; 
a printer located at the authorized manufacturing locations so that the 
printer will print the information encrypted by the meter, which encrypted 
information is affixed to the manufactured article; a data center coupled 
to the manufacturing meters and located at a site remote from the 
manufacturing meters; means for producing information that identifies the 
manufactured articles; and a plurality of means located where the 
authenticity of the manufactured articles are checked by comparing the 
encrypted information on the article with the information produced that 
identifies the article. 
Manufacturing meters are used to create unique encrypted labels or tags 
which are associated with and affixed to the manufactured article from the 
moment the article is manufactured. The label or tag contains a time stamp 
and some identification of the manufactured article. The manufactured 
article may be identified by the following manufacturing information: the 
location in which the article was manufactured; the machine that produced 
the article; the person who operated the machine that produced the 
article; and the serial number of the article, etc. The manufactured 
article may also be identified by having information that may be used 
downstream in the distribution chain. For instance, the customs rating 
code, and shipping manifest data. The manufacturing and distribution chain 
information is encrypted and/or secured with a digital signature and 
printed as a code on the aforementioned label or tag. The code may be 
encrypted and be visible or invisible to the unaided human eye. The data 
center is in periodic communication with the manufacturing meters and is 
used to distribute encryption certificates to the manufacturing meters, 
record the forensic integrity of the manufacturing meters and log the 
usage of the manufacturing meters. The scanners are used to read and 
determine the authenticity of the information printed on the tags or 
labels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawings in detail and more particularly to FIG. 1, 
the reference character 11 represents a sticker that is affixed to box 12. 
Box 12 contains articles. The type of articles contained in box 12, is 
9720 Plain Paper Facsimile 13. The distributor of the articles is shown at 
14, the city in which the distributor is located at 15, the type of 
equipment for which the articles may be used at 16, the color of the 
articles 17 and the lot number of the articles 18. A label 20 containing 
an encrypted bar code or a normal bar code 21, that is developed by some 
or all of the information contained on sticker 11, is affixed to sticker 
11. It will be obvious to one skilled in the art that bar code 21 may be 
printed with an ink that is visible or invisible to the unaided human eye. 
FIG. 2 is a drawing of a order form 26 that may be used to order 
manufactured articles. The serial number 27 of order form 26 of company 28 
is dated at 29, transmitted to 30, by 31, regarding parts and supplies 
order request 32. The supply items# are indicated in column 33, the part 
numbers in column 34, the quantities ordered in column 35 and a 
description of the manufactured articles in column 36. The person 
requesting the manufactured articles is indicated at 37 and their address 
and telephone at 38. Information regarding the ordering of 9720 plain 
white facsimile paper is entered in columns 33, 34, 35 and 36. A label 9 
containing an encrypted bar code or a normal bar code 8, that is developed 
by some or all of the information contained on order form 26, is affixed 
to order form 26. It will be obvious to one skilled in the art that bar 
code 8 may be printed with an ink that is visible or invisible to the 
unaided human eye. It will also be obvious to one skilled in the art that 
various other forms i.e., customs forms, shipping manifests, production 
forms, etc. may be used to replace form 26. Any of the above mentioned 
forms may be stored in any tangible medium of expression i.e., computer 
memory, diskettes, paper, etc. 
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the interaction of manufacturing meter 
25, manufacturing information input device 39, data center 40 and scanner 
56 of the apparatus of this invention. The components of manufacturing 
meter 25 are contained in a secure box 46, that includes physical 
interlocks or sensors 53 that prevent unauthorized personnel from 
tampering with the components of meter 25. Sensors 53 communicate with 
data center 40 via encryptor 43. An example of box 46 is the Veritas.TM. 
Authenticator manufactured by Pitney Bowes of Shelton, Conn. 06484. 
Manufacturing meter 25 includes: a secure clock 42, that indicates the time 
information was inputted by device 48 to meter 25; a encryptor 43, that is 
coupled to clock 42; an account meter 44 that includes an ascending 
register and a descending register, that are coupled to encryptor 43, a 
bar code generator 45, that is coupled to encryptor 43; a processor 52 
that is coupled to account meter 44 and encryptor 43, and a test key 47, 
that is coupled to data center 40 and encryptor 43. 
Manufacturing information input device 39 includes: an input device 48, 
that is coupled to clock 42, encryptor 43 and account meter 44 of 
manufacturing meter 25; a card reader 49 that is coupled to input device 
48; an operators identification card 50 that is read by reader 49; and a 
manufactures location authorization card 51 that is read by reader 49. 
Card 50 may be a card that has a bar code or other code affixed thereto 
that contains information about the person who is operating the equipment 
that is producing the manufactured article. The information encoded in 
card 50 may be the name, social security number, age, height, weight, 
color of eyes, etc. of the operator of the equipment that is producing the 
manufactured article. Card 51 may be a card that has a bar code or other 
code affixed thereto that contains information about the manufacturer who 
owns, leases, or rents the equipment that is producing the manufactured 
article. The information encoded in card 51 may be the name, tax 
identifying number, location of the main office, etc. of the manufacturer 
that is producing the manufactured article. Input device 48 may be used to 
inform meter 25 of the serial number of the machine or machines producing 
the manufactured article, the location of the machine or machines 
producing the manufactured article; and/or a description of the components 
that are used to produce the manufactured article, etc. 
Periodically, manufacturing meter 25 is inspected by the enabling of test 
key 47. Test key 47 may be a physical key or a signal from data center 40 
and/or an encrypted signal from encryptor 43. 
The ascending register will maintain a record of all the labels or tags 
produced by meter 25 and the descending register maintains a record of the 
number of labels or tags that have been authorized by data center 40 to be 
printed. The descending register is loaded by data center 40 with a 
pre-determined number of manufactures of articles or permissions to 
produce a given number of articles, each of which represents the 
authorization to manufacture a single article. 
In operation encryptor 43 and processor 52 will be programmed with an 
encryption algorithm, as is known in the art. Reference can be had to U.S. 
Pat. No. 4,853,961, 5,073,935 and 5,142,577, herein incorporated by 
reference wherein suitable encryption schemes are disclosed. In addition, 
a standard encryption scheme, such as the RSA encryption technique, can 
also be used for the programming of processor 52. 
Bar code generator 45 will encode the information received from encryptor 
43 to create a unique encrypted bar code that is associated with the 
article that was manufactured. Generator 45 is coupled to printer 54, 
which is located at the site that produced the manufactured article. 
Generator 45 will cause printer 54 to print a unique bar code on a product 
label or tag 55. The aforementioned bar code may be visible or invisible 
to the unaided human eye. Label or tag 55 is affixed to the manufactured 
article. The aforementioned bar code on tag 55 contains encrypted or 
digitally signed data files representing information that is unique to the 
article manufactured. 
In order to ascertain if the article manufactured that has tag 55 affixed 
thereto is genuine and not diverted from its intended logistics channel, 
the bar code on tag 55 is scanned by scanner 56. The encrypted information 
contained in the bar code printed on tag 55 is retrieved and then compared 
against information retrieved from the scan of associated documents. For 
instance, scanner 56 may scan the information contained in invoice 26. It 
will be obvious to one skilled in the art that many different associates 
documents pertaining to the manufactured article may be scanned by scanner 
56. If the scanned information on tag 55 matches or is correctly related 
to the scanned information on invoice 26 the manufactured article is in 
the correct distribution channel and the article is genuine. If, for 
example the scanned article is genuine, but the scanned article does not 
belong to the articles covered by invoice 26, then the manufactured 
article is a forgery or diverted genuine article. 
The above specification describes a new and improved system for 
identifying, authenticating and tracking articles of manufacture 
throughout their manufacturing and distribution channels. It is realized 
that the above description may indicate to those skilled in the art 
additional ways in which the principles of this invention may be used 
without departing from the spirit. It is, therefore, intended that this 
invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.