DESC:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[See Section 10 and Rule 13]

TITLE:
“A METHOD OF PROVIDING SECURITY MARK WITH OVERT AND COVERT SECURITY FEATURE”
APPLICANT:

MANIPAL TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
A company registered under Indian Companies Act, 1956 having address at
Press corner, Manipal-576104, Karnataka, India

PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION:
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printed multi-layered security mark, onto a substrate. More specifically, the invention provides security marks, with a colour changing visible layer or calligraphy comprising the overt layer, and a hidden and machine generated dynamic layer comprising, covert layer; superimposed over the overt layer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Creating goodwill of a brand takes several years of hard work and careful planning, that's why its protection is important. One of the measures undertaken to protect goodwill of a brand is by stopping counterfeit. One of the conventional ways of protecting counterfeiting is by providing a log or word mark to establish authenticity.
These marks contain information about the items attached. Machine readable marks can be read by electronic device and processed. The required data are then extracted from these marks which are further used for commercial tracking applications, authenticity and convenience-oriented applications aimed at portable device users.
The technical drawback of using such security marks is that they can be easily emulated. As there are no secondary protections on these marks their objective are easily defeated. However, there are prior arts that provide multi-layer protection, which have specialized ink formulation comprising of nanocrystals that host at least two lanthanide metals, wherein the nanocrystals are capped with an organic ligand. These features work at either UV or IR wavelength.
Although, these multi layer protection do provide protection but to formulate such ink is a very expensive process and can be easily counterfeited.
US20080252066A1 provides an indicium that is applied to the surface of an object or its packaging for purposes of identifying, tracking, and/or authenticating the object. The indicium is multi-color, co-planar, and emissive, and comprises two or more printed patterns, each printed in a different color of ink, where each pattern encodes information. There may be a single multi-color indicium or multiple indicia that are applied to an object. The indicium may be visible or covert on the substrate. Masks can be used as an aid to printing the multi-color indicium accurately to minimize areas of overprinting of inks, even at the high printing line speeds available with inkjet, laser, thermal, or piezo printing. The indicium as disclosed herein is undecipherable to an unauthorized user, wherein “undecipherable” means that the indicium cannot be read and/or interpreted by the human eye or by an electronic image reader; however, the indicium is decipherable to an authorized user when the indicium is irradiated with a specific combination of one or more light sources, causing emission of light energy from the pigments and/or dyes used to form the indicium, which is then passed through specific combinations of spectral filters, and read and decoded by an electronic image reader and its associated software. The multiple factors in the method, used in specific combinations, create a sophisticated level of encryption that is easy to use by authorized users, but is difficult to overcome by unauthorized users or counterfeiters.
US8717625 discloses an emissive image printing system for printing an image on a substrate, the image being emissively perceptible, is provided. The system includes a red additive-color emissive ink having a red emissive component with a dominant emissive wavelength between about 590 nanometers and about 680 nanometers when exposed to an excitation energy, the red emissive component being substantially invisible under illumination within the visible spectrum when the red additive-color emissive ink is printed as part of an image indicia on a substrate; a green additive-color emissive ink having an green emissive component with a green dominant emissive wavelength between about 500 nanometers and about 550 nanometers when exposed to the excitation energy, the green emissive component being substantially invisible under illumination within the visible spectrum when the green additive-color emissive ink is printed as part of the image indicia; and a blue additive-color emissive ink having an blue emissive component with a blue dominant emissive wavelength between about 420 nanometers and about 480 nanometers when exposed to the excitation energy, the blue emissive component being substantially invisible under illumination within the visible spectrum when the blue additive-color emissive ink is printed as part of the image indicia, the red, green, and blue additive-color emissive inks being configured to be printed to a substrate using an ink printer device intended for use with subtractive-color ink.
US20050178841A1 discloses a system and method for product authentication. The system used herein comprises (1) one or more dyes or pigments, at least one of which is either invisible to the naked eye or is fluorescent or luminescent, (2) an optical component capable of detecting the signals emitted by all of said inks, and (3) an information technology component for analyzing said signals. There are a large number of combinations of (1) dyes or pigments, (2) sizes and shapes of the markings made with said dyes, (3) the ability to change the type, size and shape for the marking for a given product, and (4) the ability to keep track of the dyes and markings used for a given product. With these features the system allows a nearly foolproof method for product authentication. The method employs the above scanning and information technology components, along with the above dyes or other combinations of dyes, for authenticating a given product.
WO2007120762A2 provides a composition comprises: a multifunctional scaffold having one or more first binding sites having a binding affinity for a surface of a substrate; and one or more fluorescent particles bound to the multifunctional scaffold, wherein the fluorescent particles emit light in a range of wavelength from about 400nm to about 1400nm when exposed to excitation energy.
The problem with the current prior art is that in general, any existing visible feature on substrate is prone to counterfeit so effort is driven to promote high end covert feature in the market which is invisible to the eye but hard to verify. All, these features work at either UV or IR wavelength and hence make this feature easily approachable for counterfeit but is equally expensive to adopt by the brand protectors.
Therefore, the present invention overcomes all the drawbacks of the prior art.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the main object of the invention is to provide security marks with robust security features for band protection via a multi-layered printing method, having a colour changing (overt) visible layer or calligraphy comprising the overt layer, and a hidden and machine generated dynamic layer comprising, covert layer; superimposed over the overt layer.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing method utilizing process colour inks and overt Inks.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing method utilizing dots per inch ranging from 300 to 2400 dots per inch for overt and covert layer.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a colour changing visible layer or calligraphy comprising the overt layer, wherein features appear as solid C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100 color to the naked eye, but possess encrypted variable data which can be read through in-house built device which excites at visible wavelength.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing with process colour ink, capable of being printed using printing technologies such as offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner based printing.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing with colour changing (Overt ink) ink, capable of being excited at a visible wavelength of 390 nm to 700 nm.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing with overt ink, capable of being excited at a visible wavelength of 390 nm to 700 nm using printing technologies such as offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner based printing.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing method utilizing printing technologies such as offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner for printing the dynamic layer and acting as the covert ink.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layer printing method utilizing dynamic covert layer printed over the overt layer.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method to retrieve dynamic layer information from multilayer printed mark which is affixed as a mark on a substrate.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a dynamic layer information retrieving device which shall extract information based security from printed product using combination of product using electronic components such as sensors, light source, image sensors etc.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a dynamic layer information retrieving device which shall extract information based security from printed product using combination of product using electronic components such as sensors, light source, image sensors etc
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multilayer feature which is more economical & convenient to authenticate.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a multi-layered mark, with a colour changing visible layer or calligraphy comprising the overt layer, and a hidden and machine generated dynamic layer comprising, covert layer; superimposed over the overt layer, that shall determine the authenticity of the product and stop counterfeiting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of imprinting a multi-layered security mark with robust security features on substrate such as paper, plastic etc which is tamper proof multi-layered mark, with a colour changing overt layer (visible layer) having calligraphy, and a machine generated dynamic layer acting as a covert layer (hidden layer) and; superimposed over the overt layer and a device for reading the same.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the method of imprinting multilayered dynamic layer on the security mark, the method comprising of: providing base printing by using process colour ink on a substrate; providing colour changing overt ink on base printed layer, applied selectively or otherwise, acting as the first layer of security; and printing the dynamic layer on the first layer of security to form a second layer.

In an embodiment of the present invention that acts as a security feature, the method of imprinting multilayered dynamic layer on the security mark utilizes traditional process of applying colour ink on to the substrate, once the ink is settled and dried; colour changing overt ink is overlaid. The security feature is visible under normal lighting condition which eases the end user to locate the feature position for authentication. The Background is printed with ink which excites under visible wavelength. 400 nm - 700 nm. Barcode is printed in normal ink jet or laser or offset ink. Wavelength used to excite the ink falls under visible range.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the substrate for providing base printing is preferably any paper. The base printing is provided by using process colour ink consisting of YMCK combination colour.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the colour changing overt ink is excited at visible wavelength 390 nm to 700 nm. The base layer is then selectively or completely covered with colour changing ink that excites at visible wavelength, to form a second layer.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a dynamic layer (information based layer) is then overprinted on overt feature at fixed dots per inch that makes it invisible to the naked eye. This dynamic layer is then printed using industrial printer using available print technology such as Offset, Inkjet, Laser, Toner based, screen, flexo etc. The overt layer provides a visual security mark that can be further ascertained in conjunction with the invisible, machine readable Covert dynamic information.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a decoding electronic device is claimed which shall decode information based security from printed product using combination of visible wavelength light source using lens, image sensor/ sensors, processor and filter.

The method of retrieving the multilayer dynamic layer is acting as the security mark comprises of: placing the object with the mark under the reader or scanner or decoder (electronic device); recording the presence of overt layer; and decoding the information from dynamic layer (covert layer) using processor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A complete understanding of the system and method of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following drawings:

Figure 1 elucidates the arrangement of different layers of the multi-layered security mark;

Figure 2 elucidates the method of imprinting multilayered dynamic layer on the security mark;

Figure 3 elucidates the method of retrieving the multilayer dynamic information acting as the security mark; and

Figure 4 elucidates the system of retrieving the multilayer dynamic layer information acting as the security mark.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Figure 1 elucidates the arrangement of different layers of the multi-layered security mark, the substrate 101 preferably made up of substrate such as paper or plastic used for base printing by using process colour ink 102, further selectively applying colour changing overt ink 103 on base printed layer and finally printing the dynamic layer information 104 on the first layer.

Figure 2 elucidates the method of imprinting multilayered dynamic layer information on the security mark, the method comprising of: providing base printing by using process colour ink, on a substrate preferably paper, plastic etc; providing colour changing overt ink on base printed layer, applied selectively or otherwise, acting as the first layer of security; and printing the dynamic layer information on the first layer of security. Further, this security mark is authenticated using electronic device and counterfeiting can be stopped.

Figure 3 elucidates the method of retrieving the multilayer dynamic layer information acting as the security mark. This comprises of: placing the object with the mark under the reader or scanner or decoder (handheld portable device); recording the presence of overt layer; and decoding the information from dynamic layer (Covert layer) using processor.

Figure 4 elucidates the system of retrieving the multilayer dynamic layer information acting as the security mark. The system comprising of a) at least one lens for magnifying the feature visibility by exciting the ink for capturing the image; b) at least one filter to eliminate the unwanted light reflected from the feature; c) an image capturing module; d) a processing unit; and e) a visual display unit; wherein, lens for magnifying the feature visibility utilizes wavelength that falls under visible range. As shown the substrate 201 are applied with Color changing ink 202 and Variable data 206. On exposing to normal incident light 203, by light Filter 204 helps to concentrate light in the visible range only and concentrating it via Lens 205, the excitation wavelength light source 207 highlights the image which is further recorded by Image capturing device 208, processed by processing unit 209 and displayed on visual display unit 210.
The system is implemented on a substrate is a material on which security mark is printed. In this case variable data will be visible to image capturing module. It captures two images one under normal light and other under excitation wavelength light. Both this image are processed for determine the change in color of the base print and to read the variable data. Once both this process is completed result will be displayed on the screen.

In yet another embodiment a multi-layered security mark with robust security features comprising of a substrate; a color changing overt layer as visible layer or calligraphy, superimposed over the substrate; and a machine generated dynamic hidden covert layer, superimposed over the overt layer; wherein, wavelength used to excite the ink falls in visible range; security feature is visible under normal lighting condition which eases the end user to locate the feature position for authentication; and security features are prominently visible when printed on black surface which appears as solid C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100 color to the naked eye. The covert layer possesses encrypted variable data which can be read through in-house built device which excites at visible wavelength. The security features are prominently visible to clearly elucidate the detail of calligraphy or other objects. The substrate includes materials such as paper, plastic etc.

The method of imprinting multilayered Dynamic layer on the security mark utilizes various materials components/materials used in process. The following table provides the comprehensive information on all the materials components/materials used in the work:

Table: 1

S. No. Material Specifics Method of Printing Remark
1 Substrate Almost any printable substrate such as Paper, Plastic etc Used as substrate for printing N/A
2 Process color Ink Color ink that consist of YMCK combination offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner based printing with dryer such as IR, UV, Hot air etc N/A
3 Color Changing Overt Ink Excites at visible wavelength offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner based printing with dryer such as IR, UV, Hot air etc N/A
4 Overt Ink Overt ink that acts as Covert layer offset, Screen, Inkjet, Graver, Flexo, Toner based printing with dryer such as IR, UV, Hot air etc To print Dynamic layer
5 Processor & imaging sensor ARM processor with Linux operating system, Imaging sensor from 2 to 13 MP N/A To obtain high speed processing, better image quality for feature detection.
6 Lens Allows magnification from 2 X to 20X, Focal length from 4 mm to 50 mm N/A Helps to obtain clear and magnified image.
7 Visible wavelength light source In-house assembled at particular angle to obtain better lighting. N/A To excite color changing ink.
8 Battery Approximately minimum of 6600 ma / hour power supply N/A To power up the device.
9 Display Display resolution at minimum of 320 x 240 pixels and above N/A To display the authentication result of the feature.
The invention has been described in an illustrative manner, and it is to be understood that the terminology which has been used is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation. Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described. The invention is defined by the claims. ,CLAIMS:CLAIMS
We claim:

1. A multi-layered security mark with robust security features comprising of
a) a substrate;
b) a color changing overt layer as visible layer or calligraphy, superimposed over the substrate; and
c) a machine generated dynamic hidden covert layer, superimposed over the overt layer;
wherein:
a wavelength used to excite the ink falls in visible range;
one or more security feature is visible under normal lighting condition which eases the end user to locate the feature position for authentication; and
the security features are prominently visible when printed on black surface which appears as solid C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100 color to a naked eye.

2. The multi-layered security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein said covert layer possess encrypted variable data which can be read through in-house built device which excites at visible wavelength.

3. The multi-layered security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein said security features are prominently visible to clearly elucidate the detail of the calligraphy or other objects.

4. The multi-layered security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein said substrate includes materials such as paper, plastic, or alike.

5. A system for imprinting a multi-layered security mark with robust security features comprising of:
a) at least one lens for magnifying a feature visibility by exciting the ink for capturing an image; and
b) at least one filter to eliminate the unwanted light reflected from the feature;
c) an image capturing module;
d) a processing unit; and
e) a visual display unit;
wherein:
said lens for magnifying the feature visibility utilizes wavelength that falls under visible range;
the system implemented to capture two images, one under normal light and other under excitation wavelength light.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said security feature is visible under normal lighting condition which eases the end user to locate the feature position for authentication.

7. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said security features are visible when printed on black surface.

Dated this 9th day of April, 2016

LALIT AMBASTHA
of Patentwire Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Agent for the Applicant
[IN/PA 1319]