Patent
Anti-theft lottery ticket and methods
| العنوان: | Anti-theft lottery ticket and methods |
|---|---|
| Patent Number: | 7,344,086 |
| تاريخ النشر: | March 18, 2008 |
| Appl. No: | 11/413556 |
| Application Filed: | April 28, 2006 |
| مستخلص: | An anti-theft lottery ticket includes a substrate, a redemption bar code printed on one side of the substrate, and play symbols printed in a play area on one side of the substrate. The play area is covered with a scratch-off material and a destructible bar code is printed over a portion of the scratch-off material. The portion depends on whether the ticket is a winning ticket or a losing ticket. An enclosure encloses at least one anti-theft lottery ticket, and an activation bar code is attached to the enclosure. Anti-theft lottery ticket methods include scanning the activation bar code, the destructible bar code, and the redemption bar code by a retailer and communicating with an activation-validation database to determine if a lottery ticket is valid and payable. |
| Inventors: | Grossman, Harry Jay (Fort Myers, FL, US); Ribacoff, Elie D. (Fresh Meadows, NY, US) |
| Claim: | 1. An anti-theft lottery ticket comprising: a substrate having a first side and second side; a redemption bar code printed on one side of said substrate; a play area on one side of said substrate; a plurality of play symbols printed in said play area wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket at least some of said plurality of play symbols comprise winning play symbols; a scratch-off material covering said play area; and a destructible bar code printed over a portion of said scratch-off material; wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket, said destructible bar code printed over the portion of said scratch-off material covers at least one of said winning play symbols printed in said play area; wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is not a winning ticket, said destructible bar code printed over the portion of said scratch-off material covers a random portion of said scratch-off material covering said play area; and wherein said destructible bar code is operative to activate said redemption bar code. |
| Claim: | 2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said destructible bar code and said redemption bar code is either a one-dimensional bar code or a two-dimensional bar code. |
| Claim: | 3. The invention of claim 1 wherein said redemption bar code is at least partially covered by a second scratch-off material. |
| Claim: | 4. The invention of claim 1 further comprising a second destructible bar code printed over a second portion of said scratch-off material. |
| Claim: | 5. The invention of claim 1 further comprising at least one of the following printed on said substrate: a numerical security code, a machine readable code, text, decorative graphics, and advertising. |
| Claim: | 6. An anti-theft lottery tickets comprising: an enclosure; an activation bar code attached to said enclosure; at least one anti-theft lottery ticket stored in said enclosure, said at least one anti-theft lottery ticket comprising, a substrate having a first side and second side; a redemption bar code printed on one side of said substrate; a play area on one side of said substrate; a plurality of play symbols printed in said play area wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket at least some of said plurality of play symbols comprise winning play symbols; a scratch-off material covering said play area; and a destructible bar code printed over a portion of said scratch-off material; wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket, said destructible bar code printed over the portion of said scratch-off material covers at least one of said winning play symbols printed in said play area; wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is not a winning ticket, said destructible bar code printed over the portion of said scratch-off material covers a random portion of said scratch-off material covering said play area; wherein said activation bar code is operative to activate said destructible barcode and said destructible barcode is operative to activate said redemption barcode. |
| Claim: | 7. The invention of claim 6 wherein said enclosure comprises a sealed envelope. |
| Claim: | 8. A method for making an anti-theft lottery ticket and an activation-validation database comprising the steps of: (a) according to predetermined rules of a scratch-off lottery ticket game, selecting if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket or a losing ticket; (b) generating a destructible bar code and a redemption bar code for the anti-theft lottery ticket, wherein the destructible bar code is operative to activate the redemption bar code; (c) providing a substrate having a first side and second side; (d) printing the redemption bar code on one side of the substrate; (e) printing a plurality of play symbols in a play area on one side of the substrate in accordance with the predetermined rules, wherein if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket at least some of the plurality of play symbols are winning play symbols in accordance with the pre-determined rules; (f) covering the play area with a scratch-off material; (g) if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a winning ticket, printing the destructible bar code over a portion of the scratch-off material that covers at least one of the winning play symbols printed in the play area; and (h) if the anti-theft lottery ticket is a losing ticket, printing the destructible bar code over a random portion of the scratch-off material covering the play area. |
| Claim: | 9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of: (i) making a plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets by repeating the steps of (a) through (h); (j) packaging the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets in an enclosure; (k) generating an activation bar code wherein the activation bar code is operative to activate the destructible bar code of each of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets; and (l) attaching the activation bar code to the enclosure. |
| Claim: | 10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of: (m) storing in electronic form in an activation-validation database on a computer the activation bar code, the destructible bar code on each of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets, and the redemption bar code on each of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets, such that a winning ticket is payable only after, and in the following order, the activation bar code of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets is activated, the destructible bar code of each of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets is activated, and the redemption bar code of the winning ticket of the plurality of anti-theft lottery tickets is activated. |
| Claim: | 11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of making a plurality of enclosures enclosing anti-theft lottery tickets by repeating the steps of (a) through (m). |
| Current U.S. Class: | 235/487 |
| Patent References Cited: | 4120445 October 1978 Carrier et al. 4787950 November 1988 Meloni et al. 5887906 March 1999 Sultan 6047964 April 2000 Lawandy 6270406 August 2001 Sultan 6273817 August 2001 Sultan 6308991 October 2001 Royer 6527175 March 2003 Dietz 6736324 May 2004 Behm 6875105 April 2005 Behm 2003/0216164 November 2003 Scrymgeour 2004/0023711 February 2004 Knapp 2004/0227000 November 2004 Behm et al. |
| Assistant Examiner: | Savusdiphol, Paultep |
| Primary Examiner: | Lee, Michael G. |
| Attorney, Agent or Firm: | Furman, Elliot |
| رقم الانضمام: | edspgr.07344086 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | USPTO Patent Grants |
| الوصف غير متاح. |