Patent ID: 7564772

Claim:
An optical recording medium, comprising: a substrate having a signal portion and a character portion wherein a signal portion uneven shape is formed at said signal portion and a character portion uneven shape is formed at said character portion, an optical recording layer formed over said signal portion uneven shape and character portion uneven shape portions, and a light transmitting protective layer formed over said optical recording layer, wherein depths of said signal portion uneven shape and said character portion uneven shape are 25 nm or less, and said optical recording layer is irradiated with a light through said protective layer to read information defined by said signal portion uneven shape from a side of the optical recording medium opposite the substrate side, wherein: characters are recorded and are oriented to be read when looking at said substrate side by outlines of regions formed with said character portion uneven shape and further wherein a film thickness of said optical recording layer is thicker than depths of said signal portion uneven shape and said character portion uneven shape.