Patent ID: 7188258

Claim:
A method of guaranteeing authenticity of an object that includes or has attached thereto at least one of a chip with a recording support and another recording support, said method comprising: attaching to said object a first sample of material obtainable by at least one of a chemical process and a physical process having a characteristic that samples generated by said process are random and non-reproducible, said first sample being associated with a first number obtained by reading said first sample using a first reader of a specific sort; recording, on at least one of said recording supports, at said time of production, in an exactly readable way, a representation of said first number so that said first number can be checked against a later reading made with any reader of said specific sort at each time of verification of said object, thereby providing a first verification that verifies that a sample being read at said verification of said object is indeed said first sample; and forming, at said time of production, at least one encrypted version of said first number, at least one of said encrypted versions of said first number being also recorded in an exactly readable way on said object at said time of production, said at least one encrypted version of said first number being obtained by a method from public key cryptography, said recording of said at least one encrypted version thereby providing a second verification that verifies at said verification that said encrypted version of said first number was generated by an authorized party, wherein information concerning said public key cryptography method is available so that said second verification can be made by anyone of an intended public and said first number is recorded as an unencrypted number.