Patent Publication Number: US-6705218-B2

Title: Method and apparatus for printing a beverage label having a static part and a variable part

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of application entitled BEVERAGE GAME, Ser. No. 10/028,016, filed Dec. 20, 2001. 
    
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to beverage containers, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to beverage containers and/or labels for beverage containers that include variable printed indicia to be used either alone, or in combination with other types of printed indicia such as static printing. 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     Merchants and manufacturers have long used games of various sorts to promote their products and services. Most often, the purchaser of a product will be interested in the label in conjunction with the purchase. A very wide variety of interesting labels including those with popular images, are popular and their proliferation suggests that they are at least modestly successful in increasing the sales of products. 
     Beverages, particularly canned and bottled beverages, are sold in enormous quantities. Labels have long been associated with the sale of such beverages in the past, but all such labels known to the inventors have been based on printing an image over and over on all the labels for a certain product. 
     Virtually all of promotional approaches of this type are keyed to not changing the label, in fact the advertising firms insist on not changing the labels so that the product does not lose its purchaser base and purchaser recognition in the marketplace. 
     For these reasons plus cost considerations, the inventors do not know of the effective use of variable printing on beverage containers that involve both a static and variable part on the same label. 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     The present invention includes a beverage container with a label affixed thereto having a first static part and a second variable part including printing the image on the label using a single pass. The apparatus having a computer having memory to store a first static portion of an image and a second variable portion of an image so that a rasterizer connected to the memory and combining the first static portion and the second variable portion can form an image for printing. The apparatus also has a printer connected to the rasterizer for printing the image on a label in one step. 
     The printing method of the present invention can include printing a first side of the label using a static printing process, forming an image for printing a second side of the label such that the image has a fixed part and a variable part, rasterizing the image, printing the rasterized image on a second side of the label, printing a first side of a second label using the static printing process, retrieving the image for printing the second side of the label, changing the variable part, rasterizing the image and printing the rasterized image on the second side of the second label. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
     In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a view of a beverage container showing a first label; 
     FIG. 2 is a second view of the beverage container showing a second label; 
     FIG. 3 is a detailed view of the first label; 
     FIG. 4 is a detailed view of a portion of the first label; 
     FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the printing steps; 
     FIG. 6 is a detailed view of a portion of the first label with a first variable portion; 
     FIG. 7 is a detailed view of a portion of the first label with a second variable portion; 
     FIG. 8 is a view of a partially transparent container; 
     FIG. 9 is a detailed view of a portion of the second side of the label with a static portion; 
     FIG. 10 is a detailed view of a portion of the label back with a variable portion; 
     FIG. 11 is a detailed view of the label, including a static and a variable portion; and 
     FIG. 12 is a plurality of containers. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows a view of a container  10  in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The container  10  has a first side  12 , a top  14  and a bottom  15 . A label  16  with a printable surface  17  is affixed to the first side  12  of the container  10 . The container  10  also has a second side  18 . As shown in FIG. 2, the second side  18  of the container can have a second label  20 . 
     FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the label  16  having a static part  22  and a variable part  24  created by printing the image on the label using a single pass. These combined portions form the complete label. FIG. 4 shows the variable part  24  as some indicia  26  that happen to form an image of a person, possible a famous sports person that would vary from label to label  16 . The combined static and variable portions that make up a single label are hereafter referred to as the variable printed label  28  as shown in FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 5 shows a flow chart  30  that illustrates the printing method of the present invention. In order to print a variable printed label  28  according to the current invention a printable surface  17  is positioned for printing. Preferably a static portion of the image is first retrieved  32  from a source such as a computer. After the fixed or static portion of the image is selected a variable portion of the image is selected from the source  34  and the static and variable portions combined  36 . The two portions are rasterized and the image is printed  38  on the printable surface  17 . Each new printable surface  17  can receive a different variable part of the image before the image is rasterized and printed on the label  16 . 
     In the above method the image including the static part and the variable part, are first rasterized and the rasterized image printed on the label using a single pass  38 . A computer  40  stores the static image portion of the label and a plurality of variable image portions of the label, and combines the static portion of the label with one of the variable image portions of the label before printing the combined image on the label  16 . 
     Apparatus of this invention includes the computer  40  having memory to store a first static portion of an image and a second variable portion of an image so that a rasterizer  44  connected to the memory and combining the first static portion and the second variable portion can form an image for printing. The apparatus also has a printer  46  connected to the rasterizer for printing the image on a label in one step. 
     Recent improvements in printing technology, specifically variable printing, make it possible to print these labels for beverage containers in larger quantities at a cost that manufacturers can afford using this method because the static portions of the label are stored with the variable portions. It is important to use the variable printing process or a similar printing process when preparing these labels, because the labels must vary from one to the other to make the labels vary from container to container. 
     The variable printing technology uses a process where a set of indicia with components such as A, B, C and D are printed with one or more of the indicia varying with each incremental new label. For example, indicia A, B, C, D in a variable portion  48  shown in FIG. 6 would become ABCE, or ABCF in the variable portion, on a successive label shown in FIG.  7 . The variable printing process continues to vary indicia one at a time while keeping the static portions constant on the label as each label is printed. This variable printing process allows each label to have unique indicia different from the indicia on the other containers in a set resulting in a large number of different container labels in any group of printed labels. 
     Another embodiment as shown in FIG. 8 works well a partially transparent container  50  that has a first side  52 , a top  54  and a bottom  55 . A label  56  on the container  50  has a printable surface  58  that is affixed to the first side  52  of the container  50 . The label  56  also has a backside, also known as a second side  60 . 
     As shown in FIG. 9, the second side  60  of the label  56  can have a second image  62 . The method of the present invention retrieves and prints the static portion of the image  64  on a first side of the label, retrieves a static portion  66  and a variable portion  68  (shown in FIG. 10) of the image and combines these portions of the image  70  as shown in FIG. 11 before printing the rasterized image on a second side of the label  60 . Then when a second label is printed, the first side of the second label can be printed with the same static image using the static printing process before retrieving the image for printing the second side of the label. As illustrated in the flow chart  30  in FIG. 5 the static part is printed on the first side of the label  39  and the variable part is changed, the image rasterized and printed  72  on the second side of the second label. This allows the first side of the label to be viewable at all times but the variable image is printed on the label of each container in such a way that the image is only viewable when the container is emptied of its contents if those contents are not transparent. 
     The use of the variable printed label is shown in HG.  12  with a plurality of beverage containers  80 . A first container  82  has a first variable printed label  84  that contains a first image  86 . A second container  92  has a second variable printed label  94  that contains a second image  96 . This allows the fist and second image to be different in a specific way that can relate the two. The two images can be two members of a set such as important people, famous actors, endangered animals, poems or sayings from people or pictures from artists or photographers. Variable printed labels allow the images on each beverage container to have subtle or major changes from one container to the next. 
     While presently preferred embodiments have been described for purposes of this disclosure, numerous changes may be made some indicated above, which will readily suggest themselves to instill in the art, and which are encompassed in the spirit of the invention enclosed, and as defined in the amended claims.