Patent ID: 7905401

Claim:
A method of tracking a pharmaceutical product item, the pharmaceutical product item 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 a unique identity of the pharmaceutical product item, a position of the coded data portion on the packaging and part of a signature, the signature being a digital signature of the unique identity, the method including, in a computer system: receiving indicating data from a sensing device, the indicating data being indicative of the unique identity of the product item, the position of the sensing device relative to the packaging, the part of the signature, and the physical location of the sensing device, the unique identity of the product item and the position of the sensing device relative to the packaging sensing device being generated by the sensing device by sensing one of the coded data portions; determining, from the position and the unique identity a signature part identifier; determining, from the unique identity and the signature part identifier a determined signature part corresponding to the part of the signature; and, authenticating the pharmaceutical product item by comparing the determined signature part and the part of the signature; and updating, using the physical location of the sensing device, tracking data of the pharmaceutical product item upon successful authentication.