Patent ID: 7457957

Claim:
A method of issuing conventional securities comprising at least one of gift coupons, tickets, coupons, electric stamps, bonds and debentures, notes, stock certificates, lotteries, paper money, checks, which are in a digitalized file form, and public documents being issued requiring confirmation and authentication in printed-out form to a user, the method comprising the steps of: (a) connecting said user to a site which provides a service for issuing said conventional securities through a network and selecting an issuance-option, for controlling printing; (b) generating a digital file of said conventional securities and a watermark according to said issuance-option; (c) embedding said generated watermark into said digital file of said conventional securities; wherein said embedding said watermark comprises at least one of embedding a robust watermark and a fragile watermark simultaneously, and embedding a semi-watermark into said digital file; and wherein said fragile watermark and said semi-watermark are embedded with a controlled embedding level such that said fragile watermark and said semi-watermark on said printed-out conventional securities survive and are detectable only when said printed-out conventional securities have experienced the first A/D conversion through a scanner, do not survive and are undetectable when said securities have experienced later A/D or D/A conversion, (d) printing said watermark-embedded digital file.