Patent Publication Number: US-2005140135-A1

Title: Label with clear adhesive portion

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims priority from provisional application Ser. No. 60/527,433 filed 5 Dec. 2003 and entitled Label With Clear Adhesive Portion, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates generally to labels and more particularly to the application of a label to a manufacturer&#39;s product without obscuring any pre-existing manufacturer information.  
      Product packaging supplied by a manufacturer typically includes some pre-existing information printed thereon. However, this packaging may often lack the specific labeling required by a purchaser. For example, most vials, ampoules and syringes used in the healthcare setting may include manufacturer information (e.g., the name of the drug contained in the vial, the expiration date, etc.) printed on the packaging, but may not include a bar code label required by a specific hospital. The bar codes may be necessary for the hospital to implement a point of care system. Thus, the hospital is required to place bar codes on these items to utilize the bedside point of care systems.  
      In certain situations, the application of a label by a purchaser may present certain problems. For example, due to the size of the product and the size of the label being applied, pre-existing manufacturer information printed on the product may undesirably be obscured when the purchaser applies another label.  
      As an alternative to placing a label directly on the product, a purchaser may place the product in a secondary container (e.g., a bag). The secondary container may then be labeled. This use of a secondary container, however, may increase the cost associated with labeling the product and may prevent the product from being dispensed from existing dispensing systems.  
      Thus, there exists a need for a label which can be applied to a manufacture&#39;s product by a purchaser without obscuring pre-existing manufacturer information and that overcomes the other limitations inherent in prior art.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      One aspect of the present invention relates to a label for odd forms of medications comprising a non-adhesive portion having a human readable section and a machine readable section, and a transparent adhesive portion.  
      Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of applying a label having a transparent adhesive portion and a non-adhesive portion to manufacturer&#39;s product. The method comprises printing at least one of user readable information or machine readable information on the non-adhesive portion, and attaching the transparent adhesive portion to the manufacturer&#39;s product. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      To enable the present invention to be easily understood and readily practiced, the present invention will now be described for purposes of illustration and not limitation, in connection with the following figures wherein:  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective view of a label according to one embodiment.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates an exploded view of a portion of the label of  FIG. 1  according to one embodiment.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a simplified view of a manufacturer-supplied product package according to one embodiment.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates the manufacturer-supplied product package of  FIG. 3  with the label of  FIG. 1  attached thereto according to one embodiment. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
      The label  10  of the present invention is described in conjunction with producing labels for odd forms of medications in a healthcare setting. “Odd forms of medications” refers to, among others, medical items and supplies that cannot be packaged into unit dose packages (for example, vials, ampoules, syringes, etc.). It should be apparent to one skilled in the art, however, that the label  10  may be used for a multitude of other applications while remaining within the scope of the present invention. It should further be apparent to one skilled in the art that the instant discussion is provided for exemplary purposes only and is in no way intended to limit the scope of the present invention.  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective view of a label  10  according to an embodiment. The label  10  is comprised of two portions, a non-adhesive portion  14  and an adhesive portion  12 .  FIG. 2  illustrates an exploded view of the non-adhesive portion  14  of the label  10  of  FIG. 1  according to one embodiment.  
      In the current embodiment, the non-adhesive portion  14  is comprised of a human readable section  15  which may include an NDC field, a generic name field, a strength field, a drug name field, an expiration date field, a drug form field, a packaged by field, and a lot number field, among others. The non-adhesive portion  14  may also include a machine readable section  16 , for example, comprised of an EAN/UCC compliant bar code. It should be noted that the number and type of indicia contained on the label  10  may be varied while remaining within the scope of the present invention. In the current embodiment, the non-adhesive portion  14  of the label  10  is flexible, thus allowing the folding or rolling of the non-adhesive portion  14  for the purposes of decreasing the storage space required for the manufacturer product that has had the new label  10  attached.  
      The adhesive portion  12  is comprised of a transparent material having a permanent adhesive on one side thereof to facilitate attaching the label  10  to a product. The adhesive portion  12  of the label  10  may also be flexible, thus allowing the adhesive portion  12  to conform to the shape of the package to which it is applied (e.g., to a vial, bottle, syringe, etc.).  
      In the current embodiment, the label  10  is approximately 3.9375 inches (100 mm) by 0.75 inches (19.05 mm). The non-adhesive portion  14  is 2.0 inches (50.8 mm) by 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) and the adhesive portion  12  is 1.9375 inches (49.21 mm) by 0.75 inches (19.05 mm). The label  10  is made from clear polypropylene with a thickness of two mils (0.0508 mm). The non-adhesive portion  14  is double block white “side”, triple “bump” white with varnish as is know in the art. The adhesive portion  12  has AP151 permanent adhesive applied to one side thereof.  
      In the current embodiment, machine readable section of the non-adhesive portion  14  includes an EAN/UCC compliant bar code  16  which may include the national drug code (NDC) number and the expiration date of the product. The bar code  16  is 1.25 inches (31.75 mm) by 0.25 inches (6.35 mm) in size. The human readable section  15  includes an NDC field containing 12 characters, a generic name field containing 25 characters, a strength field containing 15 characters, a drug name field containing 35 characters, an expiration date field containing 8 characters, a drug form containing 15 characters, a packaged by field containing 3 characters, and a lot number field containing 10 characters.  
      It should be noted that the above-described dimensions and field character lengths are exemplary only and that other dimensions and field character lengths may be used while remaining within the scope of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a simplified view of a manufacturer-supplied product package  20  (e.g., a vial) according to one embodiment. The vial  20  has pre-existing information  22  (i.e., the drug name and drug expiration date) printed thereon.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates the manufacturer-supplied product package  20  of  FIG. 3  with the label  10  of  FIG. 1  attached thereto. In the current embodiment, the user readable information and/or machine readable information is printed on the non-adhesive portion using a label printer (not shown) prior to attaching the label  10  to the manufacturer-supplied product package  20 . As discussed above, the user readable information may include an NDC field, a generic name field, a strength field, a drug name field, an expiration date field, a drug form field, a packaged by field, and/or a lot number field (among others), whereas the machine readable information may include a bar code (among others) that can be recognized by a bedside point of care system.  
      The transparent adhesive portion  12  is then attached to the manufacturer&#39;s product package  20  by placing the adhesive on the adhesive portion  12  of the label  10  in contact with the product package  20 . Because the adhesive portion  12  is made from a transparent material, the label  10  will not obscure pre-existing manufacture information  22  printed on the product package  20 . Thus, the label  10  may be applied anywhere on the product package  20  while still allowing the purchaser to utilize the pre-existing manufacturer&#39;s information  22 . At the same time, the label  10  provides a bar code  16  that will be recognized by bedside point of care systems and includes human readable text  15  for the purposes of pharmacist validation of the repackaged product prior to leaving the pharmacy. Additionally, the barcode  16  will support point of care scanning of the product at a patient&#39;s bedside prior to administration of the product to improve patient safety.  
      In the current embodiment, the non-adhesive portion  14  of the label  10  may be rolled or folded to reduce the amount of space required for storing the manufacturer product package  20  after the label  10  has been attached. For example, the non-adhesive portion may be rolled to match the contour of the outside of the manufacturer product package  20 .  
      It should be recognized by one skilled in the art that the label  10  may be adapted to be printed by a variety of printer types. For example, labels  10  may be adapted to be individually fed through a printer, may be adapted to be supplied on a roll for continuous feed through the printer, or may be adapted to be fed in a sheet through the printer such that multiple labels may be simultaneously printed, among others.  
      It should further be recognized that the above-described embodiments of the invention are intended to be illustrative only. Numerous alternative embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claim.