The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 13, 1996
Filed:
Feb. 01, 1995
Leslie M Watts, Medinah, IL (US);
Illinois Tool Works Inc., Glenview, IL (US);
Abstract
A novel carrier for carrying a group of items, such as cans, bottles or the like which hold beverages, foods or the like, is made of a substantially transparent, plastic material having micro-embossed partial cube-corner type retro-reflector elements on a surface of the carrier. Each item includes an individual machine readable bar code thereon which is at least partially covered by the reflector elements. The package has a machine readable bar code thereon which is not covered by the reflector elements on the carrier. The reflector elements prevent the individual bar codes on the items from being read by a typical bar code reader beam by reflecting the light emitted from the bar code reader so the light cannot penetrate the carrier and read the bar code underneath the reflector elements. The bar code on the package, which when scanned by the bar code reader beam will retrieve package information, can be read by the reader since it is not covered by the reflector elements.