Multiple-part form with one or more parts removably retained by temporary adhesion in stub area

A pad is provided of a stack of preprinted sheets grouped set by set in at least one set, at least some sheets of which differ in some way from the others by virtue of the information, indicia, routing indicator, pattern of carbonless back-coating, color or the like. Within the pad, each sheet is serially connected to its neighbors along at least one respective margin of each, at least one of these connections in each set being by means of a strip of non-drying, lightly tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive, e.g. so as to provide a multiple part business form set or a pad of several multiple part business form part sets stacked in series, in which at least some of the sheets are connected to adjacent sheets at least generally in accordance with the way that is disclosed in Swiss Pat. No. 452,479.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In recent years pads of paper have become very popular in which each sheet 
has a marginal stub area bearing on its underside a band of non-drying, 
slightly-tacky adhesive which, while permanently bonded to the underside 
of the sheet, only temporarily bonds to other surfaces, including to the 
stub areas of the top surfaces of respectively adjacent like sheets in the 
stack which constitutes the pad. 
The general concept of such a product is disclosed in the Swiss patent of 
Eugster 452,479, dated May 31, 1986. 
Eugster discloses a paper pad that is composed of self-adhesive individual 
sheets and is characterised in that each sheet is detachably joined to the 
sheet underneath it by means of a non-drying adhesive and in that the 
strip of adhesive provided at the edge of each individual sheet has one 
side which is smooth and adherent but does not take up adhesive while the 
other side carries the adhesive. The side carrying the adhesive may be 
arranged on the underside of the sheet. The adhesive applied to this side 
cannot be removed without chemical agents. When two such surfaces of 
adhesive strip which have been glued together are separated, virtually all 
the adhesive is left on the underside while the upper surface remains 
unwetted. 
When assembling such a pad with the aid of non-drying adhesive, the top 
edge of each individual sheet is mechanically pressed with its underside, 
which receives adhesives, to the smooth upper surface of the other sheet, 
which does not take up adhesive. The individual sheets are thereby bonded 
together but they are not permanently fixed together, that is to say they 
are not glued together but can be separated one by one by hand. When a 
sheet is removed, the adhesive is left on the underside of the sheet so 
that the sheet which has been removed can be fixed by light finger 
pressure to another surface without the use of fresh adhesive. 
Adhesives and paper useful in making such products are well known in the 
particular art. 
When such pads first became widely available to the public in the United 
States about 10 years ago, the individual sheets bore no preprinting 
whatsoever, and the major uses were for temporarily tabbing pages of 
interest on documents, sometimes with notations field-applied, e.g. for 
indicating where a typographical correction to the adjacent text was 
needed, and for leaving notes in conspicuous places, e.g. on or about a 
person's desk, by their telephone, on a book or correspondance, on their 
refrigerator door and so forth. After a matter of time, a few months or 
perhaps a couple of years or so, pads of such sheets, containing identical 
designs, preprinted information or a format or gridwork for information on 
each sheet made their appearance. One example is a preprinted gridwork for 
leaving a message that one person would like to contact, or is attempting 
to contact another person by telephone or in some other way. Another is a 
pad of preprinted routing slips for books, correspondance or documents. 
Pads of humorous one-sheet greeting cards preprinted and assembled in a 
like matter even more recently have become available. However, in each 
instance of which the present inventor is aware, all sheets in any one 
stack have been preprinted with the identical information and/or 
decoration. 
The present inventor is an employee of a company which not only makes and 
sells, under the trademark Note-Stix, several varieties of note pads of 
the type which has just been described, but also has a regular business of 
making and selling a wide variety of business forms, including ones which 
are available in pad form, and ones which are furnished in sets, each set 
being made up of a stack of several sheets or "parts" which are serially 
attached to one another along at least one edge or margin of each sheet. 
Frequently, each part in a set is different from the others in some 
readily apparent way, e.g. it is in a different color and bears an 
indication that it is to be retained by or routed to a particular party, 
office or functional unit. It is not uncommmon for sheets in such sets to 
be interleaved with or to bear as coatings on their undersides 
pressure-activated copy-making material such as carbon paper or carbonless 
coatings of micro-encapsulated ink. In some cases the set has a definite 
marginal strip or stub composed in part of a portion of each of the form 
parts, from which the remainder of at least one of the sheets can be 
detached, e.g. along a line of weakness such as a line of pre-formed 
perforation, leaving behind the stub or marginal strip, and often one or 
more of the form parts. 
However, to the present inventor's knowledge there has been heretofore 
little or no effective cross-fertilization of these two fields of 
technology, i.e. pads of temporarily adhered notes, and sets of 
multiple-part forms. The present invention involves an advantageous 
hybridization of these two fields of technology. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A pad is provided of a stack of preprinted sheets grouped set by set in at 
least one set, at least some sheets of which differ in some way from the 
others by virtue of the information, indicia, routing indicator, pattern 
of carbonless back-coating, color or the like. Within the pad, each sheet 
is serially connected to its neighbors along at least one respective 
margin of each, at least one of these connections in each set being by 
means of a strip of non-drying, lightly tacky pressure-sensitive adhesive, 
e.g. so as to provide a multiple part business form set or a pad of 
several multiple part business form part sets stacked in series, in which 
at least some of the sheets are connected to adjacent sheets at least 
generally in accordance with the way that is disclosed in Swiss patent 
452,479. 
The principles of the invention will be further discussed with reference to 
the drawing wherein a preferred embodiment is shown. The specifics 
illustrated in the drawing are intended to exemplify, rather than limit, 
aspects of the invention as defined in the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
A pad 10 made up of a stacked series of multiple part sets 12 of preprinted 
business forms. In the example shown, each set consists of six parts (i.e. 
six sheets with or without adjuncts) although each set could consist of 
from two to several parts. For convenience in reference, the sheets in a 
set 12 have been given a general numeral 14, to which a suffix A-F will be 
appended when referring to a distinct sheet. 
In the instance depicted, each of the sheets 14 has one margin 16, 
extending between two opposed edges 18 which is designated a stub region 
and in this region, each of the sheets 14 carries on its undersurface 20 a 
band of adhesive 22, 24. One or more of the sheets 14, in or outside the 
stub area thereof may also carry on its undersurface 20 a regional coating 
26 of carbon-type or carbonless pressure-sensitive copy-making coating 
adapted to produce on the respective underlying region 28 of the upper 
surface of the respective next sheet 14 a replica of what is pressed on 
the sheet from above. Rather than being a coating, the copy-making means 
26 may be constituted by an interleaved sheet of carbon paper, carbonless 
carbon paper or the like. 
In the instance depicted, in each set, the sheets 14A-14F are equal in 
width and the sheets 14A, 14B, 14C and 14E are equal in length, but the 
sheets 14D and 14F have marginal tabs 30 which extend beyond the 
respective edges of the other sheets. 
Also in the instance depicted, the sheets 14A-14E are all equal to one 
another in thickness, but sheet 14F, the lowermost sheet in the set, is 
somewhat thicker. 
On the sheets 14A-14D and 14F the margins 16 are not set off from the main 
body of the respective sheets by any line of weakness, in the illustrated 
example, but the sheet 14E has a line of weakness 32 (e.g. a line of 
perforations) extending thereacross between the margin 16 thereof and the 
body 34 thereof. 
In the example shown, the bands of adhesive 22 are bands of non-drying, 
lightly tacky adhesive such as is disclosed in Swiss patent 452,479. In 
the embodiment depicted, the bands 22 are applied to the undersides of the 
sheets 14A-14D and 14F respectively for releasably, reversibly adhering 
the marginal regions 16 of sheets 14A-D of one set to the marginal regions 
16 of the sheets 14B-14E in one set and the marginal region 16 of sheet 
14F in one set to the marginal region 16 of the sheet 14A of the adjacent 
next-lower set. Of course, a pad could be only one set of sheets 14A-F 
with no adhesive on the back of 14F. 
The band 24 is made of conventional permanent adhesive in this example. In 
practice, all or only some of the bands may be of releasable/reusable 
adhesive 22, and none or some of the bands may be of permanent adhesive 
24. Use of adhesive 22 permits a sheet or a set or sub-set of sheets above 
an adhesive/next lower sheet interface to be easily peeled free of the 
remainder. Use of adhesive 24 ensures that at least the stub 16 of the 
respective sheet will remain secured to the stub region of the next lower 
sheet, although a line of weakness 32 associated with a permanently 
adhered sheet (14E) allows that sheet to be snapped out of the stack, 
leaving its stub in place, without disrupting the securement of other 
sheets to one another in the respective margin of the set. 
It should now be noticed that the sheets 14A-14E in each set, on their 
respective upper surfaces bear indicia 36 which in informational content, 
color, routing indicator and/or the like differs from sheet to sheet. 
Although two or more sheets may be duplicates in each set, in each set 
there are at least two different indicia patterns and, by preference, no 
two sheets 14 in a set have like patterns but, among the sets, 
corresponding sheets are alike except perhaps for a unique set number or 
the like. 
The form parts containing the adhesive 22 can be easily separated from the 
others, with the reusable adhesive 22 remaining on the underside now 
providing a convenient means for removably attaching that form part or set 
or sub-set of form parts to an article, display surface, message board or 
the like. 
Accordingly, the preprinted indicia may be such as to suit the sets for use 
as work orders, routing slips, correspondance pads, article-related 
information-bearers, notice posters and the like. 
Although the pad 10 has been shown being one set wide and one set long but 
several sets thick, it could also or in the alternative be several sets 
wide or long, with lines of weakness provided for severing sets one by one 
from the pad. And other features commonly found in business forms such as 
glue strips for fastening folded sheets to themselves to form mailers, and 
rows of sprocket holes for accomodating the sets for use on rotary pin-fed 
business-form processing equipment may be provided, as will be understood 
by those skilled in the art. 
It should now be apparent that the multiple-part form with one or more 
parts removably retained by temporary adhesion in stub area as described 
hereinabove, possesses each of the attributes set forth in the 
specification under the heading "Summary of the Invention" hereinbefore. 
Because it can be modified to some extent without departing from the 
principles thereof as they have been outlined and explained in this 
specification, the present invention should be understood as encompassing 
all such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of the following 
claims.