Patent ID: 8286222

Claim:
A method for authenticating a pharmaceutical product, the pharmaceutical product being associated with packaging having disposed thereon or therein coded data including a number of coded data portions, each coded data portion being indicative of an identity of the pharmaceutical product and at least part of a signature, the signature being a digital signature of at least part of the identity and being encoded within a plurality of coded data portions, wherein the method includes: in a sensing device: sensing at least one coded data portion; and, generating, using the sensed coded data portion, indicating data indicative of: the identity; and, the at least one signature part; in a processor: determining, from the indicating data: a determined identity; and, at least one determined signature part; authenticating the pharmaceutical product using the determined identity and the at least one determined signature part, wherein the coded data is arranged in accordance with at least one layout having n-fold rotational symmetry, where n is at least two, the layout including n identical sub-layouts rotated 1/n revolutions apart about a centre of rotation, at least one sub-layout including rotation-indicating data that distinguishes that sub-layout from each other sub-layout, the sub-layouts defining the position of a plurality of first symbols encoding the identity and a plurality of second symbols defining at least part of the signature.