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:
Nov. 04, 1997
Filed:
Jul. 22, 1996
William N Weaver, Northbrook, IL (US);
Peter L Samaras, Elk Grove Village, 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 plastic material having an opaque strip of material printed on a surface of the carrier. The opaque strip can be a solid, opaque line or a series of opaque dots. Each item includes an individual machine readable bar code thereon which is at least partially covered by the opaque strip. The package has a machine readable bar code thereon which is not covered by the opaque strip on the carrier. The opaque strip prevents the individual bar codes on the items from being read by a typical bar code reader beam. The bar code on the package can be read since it is not covered by the opaque strip.