Abstract:
A method for preparing both main label and warning label portions for a container useful in dispensing drugs by a pharmacist in which the main label portion contains specific drug or patient information and the warning label portion contains one or more warnings specific to the drug or patient information.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application is a continuation application and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/819,247, filed Apr. 5, 2004 for “Method for Simultaneously Preparing Pharmacy Vial Label and Drug-Specific Warning Labels”, issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,052, which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/525,268, filed Mar. 13, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,796, which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/224,329, filed Dec. 31, 1998 issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,231 which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/867,965 filed Jun. 3, 1997 issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,395 which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/504,765 filed Jul. 20, 1995 Issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,906 which itself is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/121,415 filed Sep. 16, 1993 now abandoned all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, and all commonly owned. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention relates to paper blanks for use with a printer in a computer system, and in particular relates to a compound paper blank to be printed on by a computer printer. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Labels having pressure sensitive adhesive have been applied to drug containers for a long time by the pharmaceutical industry to identify the customer, the doctor, the drug being dispensed, and the frequency of the dosage. These labels usually can be purchased in bundles that can be fed into a computer driven printer. The information to be printed on one of the labels is either typed into the computer using a conventional pharmacy computer program or is retrieved from a stored record having been previously typed into the computer memory using the pharmacy computer program. Such a computer program also has automatically printed out receipts for the customer and records for the pharmacy. 
   The pharmaceutical industry has also been applying oblong or rectangular warning labels to the drug containers for some time. These warning labels warn the customer about certain events or provide instructions involving the prescribed drug. For example, a warning label may carry the message: 
   MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS; ALCOHOL MAY INTENSITY THIS EFFECT. USE CARE WHEN OPERATING A CAR OR DANGEROUS MACHINERY. 
   The warning labels have been supplied to the pharmaceutical industry for some time in rolls of the same message. 
   Pharmacies have also been supplying customers with an instruction sheet containing information about the drugs they are purchasing. One type of such labels carry the brand name PAL (Patient Advisory Leaflet). 
   The prior art also contains references which teach the use of a computer system to generate prescription labels printed by a computer driven printer. Such references include the following U.S. patents, which are incorporated herein by reference: Baum U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,604; Olodort et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,174; and McKee U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,657. The prior art also contains references which disclose a manual form having an adhesive label portion used in combination for record keeping and generating a label to be applied to a drug container. Examples of U.S. patents, which are incorporated herein by reference, disclosing such forms are the Lockhart U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,277,089 and 4,159,129; and the Biava et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,712. 
   However, there is no known prior art reference which provides a blank for a computer printer that contains portions for both a removable prescription drug label and a removable warning label with portions for other printed information. Such a system would reduce package costs, provide greater flexibility, and be compatible with existing computer software used by pharmacies. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Accordingly the present invention is designed to provide a multi-part blank which can be fed in a computer driven printer and when printed, will contain all of the parts needed for a complete set. Such a set contains a peelable vial label having a pressure sensitive adhesive connected to removable strips of computer selected warning labels also having a pressure sensitive adhesive. The set also contains portions for printed information needed by both the pharmacy and the customer. 
   The present invention provides a printer blank which can cut expenses, reduce errors, and cut time in preparing records and drug containers for customers. In one particular embodiment of the invention, a single sheet of multi-sectional paper blank can be fed into a laser printer and on that one sheet there will be printed a drug advisory leaflet; no, one or more than one warning labels having a pressure sensitive adhesive on its back side for easy application to a drug container, and a drug container label containing drug, customer, and pharmacy information. This blank in one pass through the laser printer contains all of the necessary records and parts for the entire drug transaction. 
   According to one embodiment, the present invention comprises a blank for use with a printer for printing information and labels for drug containers. The blank comprises a sheet of a material having a front side that can be printed on with the printer, a back side, a top and bottom edge which together define a generally horizontal direction, and two side edges which together define a generally vertical direction. The sheet includes at least a first portion and a second portion divided by a first, generally vertically extending tear line or tear line that extends from the top edge to the bottom edge. In the first portion the printer prints text about the particular drug being prescribed, and in the second portion, which includes a label laminate divided into a first section and a second section by a generally horizontal, second tear line. The second section is further divided into a plurality of horizontal strips by at least two generally horizontal tear lines which extend from the first tear line to one of the side edges of the blank. The laminate is comprised of a backing sheet, a removable label sheet having a front side that can be printed on with the printer and a back side, and a pressure-type adhesive on the back side of said label sheet. 
   Other advantages, features, and details of the present invention will be set forth in or apparent from the detailed description thereof contained hereinbelow. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is an electronic block diagram of a prototype computer system used to demonstrate the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a plan view of a blank in accordance with the present invention before it has been printed on; 
       FIG. 3  is an enlarged, not-to-scale, cross-sectional view taken along lines  3 - 3  of  FIG. 2  in which certain layers have been shown thicker in order to depict the details of construction; 
       FIG. 4  is a plan view of a blank that has indicia printed on it by a computer driven laser printer; 
       FIGS. 5 ,  6  and  8  are plan views of other blanks in accordance with the present invention; and 
       FIG. 7  is an enlarged, not-to-scale, cross-sectional view taken along lines  7 - 7  of  FIG. 6  in which certain layers have been shown thicker in order to depict the details of construction. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   With reference now to the drawings in which like numerals are used to represent like elements throughout the several views, and in particular with reference to  FIG. 1 , a computer system  10  is depicted for generating a completed form such as shown in  FIG. 4 . Computer system  10  is comprised of a conventional host computer  12  having a conventional keyboard  14  for the manual input of information, a conventional computer monitor  16  for the output of information and a conventional external memory  18 , which can be a conventional hard disk system. Host computer  12  has an input/output port  20  and can be an IBM compatible computer type using an INTEL brand 80486 DX microprocessor with 8 Mega-bytes of internal memory. Memory  18  holds a number of data bases, such as a customer data base containing customer information and a store data base containing the pharmacy&#39;s inventory control information. Memory  18  also holds a conventional pharmaceutical computer program. The program is used by pharmacies to generate the customer data base and store data base, and to extract information contained in these data bases and combine it with information entered from keyboard  14  by a pharmacist to produce an output to drive a printer to print a conventional drug label. 
   Connected to host computer through input/output port  20  is a supplemental computer  22 . Supplemental computer  22  can be identical in configuration to host computer  12 . Connected to supplemental computer  22  is a conventional external memory  24  and a conventional laser printer  26 , such as a Hewlett-Packard model Series 2 laser printer. Stored in memory  24  are an NDC (National Drug Code) data base containing a standardized drug code list, a data base containing information for the customer about each prescribed drug, such as the commercially available C-PAL® data base, and a data base of warning labels, including unique logos and icons (see, for example,  FIG. 4 ). Also contained in memory  24  is a program which permits supplemental computer to intercept the printer information from host computer  12 , to reformat the information, to enter the C-PAL® and warning label data bases to get the related information, and to regenerate the printer information with the incorporated C-PAL® and warning label information. 
   Computer system  10  is depicted in  FIG. 1  as having two computers and it is so configured because it has been designed to complement, upgrade and modify an existing pharmacy computer system that has been using commercially available software. However, an alternative embodiment of the invention (not depicted) is implemented on, or includes, a single computer system in which supplemental computer  22  is combined with host computer  12 , supplemental computer memory  24  is combined with host computer memory  18 , and a single computer program is used both for the conventional pharmacy inventory control, accounting and report generating tasks and for the printing of a completed form, such as depicted in  FIG. 4 . 
   A blank or form  50  in accordance with the present invention is depicted in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . Blank  50  is preferably made from a flexible, conventional stock material. Blank  50  has a front side  52  which can receive and retain “ink” or print from printer  26  and a back side  54  ( FIG. 3 ). As shown in  FIG. 2 , blank  50  has a top edge  56  and a bottom edge  58  parallel thereto which are arbitrarily used to define the horizontal direction in blank  50 . 
   Blank  50  also has a left side  60  and a right side  62  parallel thereto which are arbitrarily used to define the vertical direction in blank  50 . In a presently preferred embodiment, blank  50  is made of paper and is essentially a square with each side having a length of 8.5 inches (21.59 cm). Alternatively, blank  50  can be made from a plastic or other thin sheet material which can be printed on. 
   Blank  50  is comprised of a first sheet  64  and a second sheet  66  which have respective overlapping strips  68  and  70  that are adhered to one another with a conventional heat set adhesive  72 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . 
   Strip  68  is defined not only by its overlapping strip  70 , but also by a vertically extending tear line  74  that extends from top edge  56  to bottom edge  58 . Tear line  74  can be a score line, but preferably is a perforation line with the perforations extending completely through first sheet  64 . Thus, as seen on front side  52  of blank  50 , it can also be said that tear line  74  divides blank  50  into a first portion  76 , which is coextensive with first sheet  64  less strip  68 , and a second portion  78  which is coextensive with second sheet  66  including strip  70 . 
   As depicted in  FIG. 3 , second sheet  66  is comprised of a laminate and has a backing  80  and a paper top layer  82 . Backing  80  in the presently preferred embodiment is a paper product having an embedded plastic top portion or coated with a plastic film (not shown). Attached to the underside of top layer  82  is a conventional pressure adhesive  84 . By appropriately selecting top layer  82 , adhesive  84  and backing  80 , adhesive  84  removably adheres top layer  82  to backing  80 , and after top layer  82  is removed from said backing sheet is able to adhere more permanently top layer  82  to a container (not shown), which can be a conventional plastic bottle in which drugs are dispensed. 
   As seen in  FIG. 2 , when viewed together with  FIG. 4 , first portion  76  is much larger in the horizontal direction than second portion  78 . In a presently preferred embodiment, first sheet has a width of 6⅝th inches (16.83 cm) and first portion  76  has a width of 6⅜ inches (16.19 cm). First portion  76  is divided into three sections,  86 ,  88  and  90  by a vertical tear line  92  and by a short horizontal tear line  94 . Tear line  92  is a perpendicular bisector of tear line  92 , which is parallel to tear line  74  and similarly extends from top edge  56  to bottom edge  58 . In a preferred embodiment of the invention, tear lines  92  and  94  are perforation lines with the perforation extending completely through first sheet  64 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , section  86  is the largest section and is used to contain the text of a Patient Advisory Leaflet. Sections  88  and  90  are obviously of equal size and they are each used to contain the text of a customer receipt which can be used for financial records. 
   Second portion  78  is divided into a plurality of vertically arranged portions by a plurality of horizontal tear lines. In the present embodiment there are seven such portions denoted  96 ,  98 ,  100 ,  102 ,  104 ,  106  and  108  created by six tear lines  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118 , and  120 . In a preferred embodiment, tear lines  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116  and  120  extend only through top′ layer  82  and attached layer of adhesive  84  and are perforation lines. On the other hand, tear line  118  in a preferred embodiment is a perforation line with the perforations extending completely through second sheet  66 . Portion  96  is a wrap-around label to be applied to a drug container. Portions  98 ,  100 ,  102  and  104  are four blanks, none, some or all of which may be used to contain design and word indicia representing warning labels to be applied to a drug container. Portion  106  is unused filler. 
   Portion  108  is vertically bisected by a vertical tear line  122  to create vertically extending parts  124  and  126 . In a preferred embodiment, tear line  122  is a perforation line with the perforations extending completely through second sheet  66 . Part  124  is used to obtain a third party signature and also to contain information about the particular prescription. Part  126  can be used as an adhesive pharmacy record label to be applied to an appropriate ledger page (not shown). 
   The advantages to having tear lines  74 ,  92 ,  94 ,  118  and  122  extend completely through their respective sheets  64  and  66  is that blank  50  can be easily and quickly divided into five portions, each with an entirely different purpose. Portions  86  (the patient advisory leaflet),  88  and  90  are adhesive free and are given to the customer. Combined portions  96 ,  98 ,  100 ,  102 ,  104  contain indicia having the information necessary for the container of the drug being dispensed, and the adhesive top layer  82  can be removed as one piece from backing  80 , the unused warning label portions removed, and the remaining piece applied to the drug container. Finally, adhesive parts  124  and  126  can be selectively removed from their piece of backing  80  and applied to the appropriate pharmacy ledger. 
   The number of warning label blanks provided is somewhat arbitrary, except that based upon prior experience most druggist do not select more than four such labels for any particular drug. Obviously, the number of blanks could be larger or smaller if necessary, and the unused blanks would be separated and discarded before the drug label, portion  98 , and used warning labels, portions  98 ,  100 ,  102  and  104  are applied. 
   In an alternative embodiment, portion  108  could be divided into three vertically extending parts by two tear lines so that the signature section could be separated from the pharmacy record label. 
   The further embodiments depicted in  FIGS. 5-8  may be used alone as illustrated or as alternative portions of the particular embodiment described above. 
   The  FIG. 5  embodiment comprises a main label  200  and auxiliary labels  210  to  213 . Auxiliary labels  210  to  213 , which are horizontally disposed with respect to main label  200 , are horizontally separated from each other and from other portions of the blank by way of knife or die cuts  220  to  224  and vertically from other portions of the blank by way of knife or die cuts  230  to  233 , which knife or die cuts extend through the adhesive layer but not through the backing layer. At least one of lines  240  to  243  is a perforation line extending to but not through the backing sheet, such that at least one of auxiliary labels  210  to  213  is separated from the backing sheet simultaneously with the removal of main label  200  from the backing sheet. Any of lines  240  to  243  which are not perforation lines, if any, are knife or die cuts extending to the backing sheet, such that the respective auxiliary labels are completely separated from each other as well as from any other portions of the blank. 
   The embodiment of  FIGS. 6 and 7  differs from the  FIG. 5  embodiment in that auxiliary labels  310  to  313  are vertically rather than horizontally disposed with respect to the main label  300 . Thus each of lines  320  to  328  is a knife or die cut extending through adhesive  84  to but not through backing sheet  80 , at least line  330  of lines  330  to  333  is a perforation line extending to but not through back sheet  80 , and any of lines  331  to  333  which are not perforation lines, if any, are knife or die cuts extending to but not through the backing sheet, such that any respective auxiliary label is completely separated, and therefore separately removable, from any other portion of the blank. With such a construction, at least one but optionally up to all of the auxiliary labels may be removed from the backing sheet simultaneously with the main label and any unused but removed auxiliary labels, if any, may be subsequently and easily separated from the main and/or used auxiliary label(s). In a preferred embodiment of the  FIGS. 6 and 7  embodiment, lines  330  and  331  are perforated lines and lines  332  and  333  are die cuts, such that two auxiliary labels  310  and  311  are simultaneously removed from back sheet  80  with main label  302 . 
   The embodiment of  FIG. 8  illustrates a blank  400  of which the blank of the  FIG. 6  embodiment is one component  410 . Additional components  415  and  420  of the  FIG. 8  embodiment are additional separately removable adhesive labels. 
   As described in detail above, in carrying out a method of labeling utilizing blank forms according to the invention, the user causes the desired information to be printed on the main label and, optionally, on one or more auxiliary labels, simultaneously removes the printed main label and at least one auxiliary label from the backing sheet, separates any simultaneously removed but unused auxiliary label(s), and simultaneously applies the main label and any remaining, i.e., used, auxiliary label(s) to another surface. When used in a pharmacy application as a labeling system for prescription drugs, any used auxiliary labels comprise warning labels to the user of the drug dispensed in the container to which the labels are affixed. 
   Thus, the present invention has been described with reference to the drawings with respect to presently preferred embodiments. As such, the present invention permits, for example, the existing computer system of a pharmacy to execute a label set as usual while the software of the present invention adds information by which laser printer  26  will print any warning labels and an advisory leaflet corresponding to the drug being dispensed. 
   The one piece wrap-around pressure sensitive label for the drug container optionally combines the main drug container label with one or more selected warning labels. 
   Other modifications and enhancements of the present invention would be obvious to those skilled in the art.