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:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 15, 1998
Stephan Guenther, Berlin, DE;
Ralf Kubatzki, Berlin, DE;
Francotyp-Postalia AG & Co., Birkenwerder, DE;
Abstract
In an arrangement and a method for data exchange between a postage meter machine and chip cards, a postage meter machine is equipped with a chip card write/read unit and appertaining control system wherein first, corresponding to a succession number a specific insertion sequence for valid chip cards is required in order to reload (update) data, and second, an authorized user is allowed to define a specific sequence for the insertion of lower-ranking, suitably initialized chip cards in order to simplify the function and data entered into the postage meter machine. These latter chip cards set a limited function scope within the postage meter. For their initialization, a table with a specific hierarchic (tree) structure is produced by the user by modifying a pre-stored structure in the postage meter machine. The further chip cards allow access to the table with their chip card number in order to call function applications with limit data that are stored in non-volatile memory areas allocated to the chip card number.