Patent ID: 7805905

Claim:
A roofing material comprising four adjacent shingles, each of the first, second, third and fourth adjacent shingles comprising: (a) a posterior layer having a posterior headlap and four posterior tabs extending therefrom, each posterior tab having a posterior tab corner; (b) an anterior layer having an anterior headlap, one or more anterior tabs extending from said headlap, and at least one alignment notch positioned on a lower edge of the anterior headlap proximate the posterior tabs, wherein the total number of anterior tabs and notches on the anterior layer is equal to the total number of posterior tabs; and wherein the anterior layer is positioned on the posterior layer in a manner such that each anterior tab is positioned substantially over the center of one of the respective four posterior tabs; and wherein, for each posterior tab having no anterior tab positioned thereon, the at least one alignment notch is positioned along the lower edge of the anterior headlap in substantially the center of the region where the anterior headlap lies over the posterior tab; wherein the posterior tab corner forms an edge having substantially the same angle as an edge of the alignment notch; wherein each of the first, second and third adjacent shingles differ from each other based on the position of at least one anterior tab with its respective posterior tab; and wherein the first adjacent shingle and the fourth adjacent shingle are identical based on the positions of the one or more anterior tabs and the at least one alignment notch, so that when installed, a pattern of varying anterior tabs is created based on the location of the anterior tabs and the at least one notch.