CN1119009A - Containers with means to guarantee the authenticity of the origin of the contained product - Google Patents

Abstract

This device is characterised in that sealing means (6b) are associated with means (10) for visually indicating the first opening of a container, which consist of an engraved inscription (11) straddling said sealing means (6b), once they are in place, and an immediately adjacent part (1a) of the container (1), so that the part (11a) of the inscription (11), which is provided directly in the material of the container (1a), is thereby made indelible, whereas the complementary part (11b) of the inscription (11) which is provided on an adjacent zone (6c) of the sealing means (6b) is removed during the tearing open of said sealing means when the container is opened, thus leading to an irremediable separation of the two complementary parts (11a, 11b) of the inscription (11), without the possibility of subsequently re-aligning them with a view to fraudulent re-use of the container (1).

Description

Containers with means to assure the authenticity of the origin of the contained product

The present invention relates to a container having means for assuring the authenticity of the product contained therein, and also to a method of sealing such a container.

The product is housed in a container, which can be of any kind, and the container is generally rigid, but not necessarily rigid.

As mentioned above, the device of the present invention may be used with any kind of product, but it is clear that the products most likely to be counterfeited are generally luxury consumer goods such as fine alcoholic beverages, perfumes or cosmetics. However, it is equally applicable in the pharmaceutical industry or even in the food industry.

In recent years, it has been found that counterfeiting technology has gradually formed, and the counterfeiters conclude that the closest in appearance to the original container is the container itself. As a result, substandard counterfeit products appear on some of the same markets in original containers that are available through the take-back and reuse system.

Of course, in recent years, attention has also been paid to devices to prevent such fraud, and attempts have been made to protect the original product by means of sealing the opening of the container, which will leave a tearing mark once opened.

It has thus been proposed that any attempt to remove a label or adhesive strip between the closure of the container and the container itself will at least partially destroy the warranty label.

A safety ring is also proposed. This ring is arranged between the closure of the container and the neck of the container and consists of a frangible area which ruptures as soon as the closure is twisted to remove it.

It is also known to place a sleeve of heat shrinkable material over the closure means of the container and a portion of the container adjacent to the closure.

A hologram is also applied, still placed in the area of the container opening, this hologram is a very advanced device.

But unfortunately, all of these devices are reproducible, and counterfeiters have no hesitation in substituting another tag for this tag, another similar ring for this security ring, or another hologram for this image. In fact, they only need to remove the sealing part which was broken during the first use and replace it with an equivalent, if not identical, at least part, in which case the container as the base is completely sealed as far as the container is concerned. Authenticity is preserved.

Therefore, the first step of the invention consists in reaching the conclusion that after the first use the container should not be free from any trace of sealing, but should instead retain some which cannot be removed by scraping, gluing or mechanical means. There are no traces that damage the appearance of the container itself. It is thus possible to render the container unsuitable for re-use under any circumstances.

To this end, according to a first aspect, the present invention relates to a system that makes it possible to guarantee the authenticity of the origin of the product contained in a container provided with a closure device comprising an outer part secured to the closure and an empty container. The sealing device between the container, so that when the container is opened for the first time, the sealing device is broken due to intentional tearing, this system is characterized in that the sealing device is connected with the device for visually indicating the first opening In combination, the display means consists of an engraved nameplate straddling the above-mentioned seal and the immediately adjacent portion of the container when in place, the portion of the chrome plate engraved directly on the container material is indelible and cannot be removed when opening When the container is opened to tear the closure, the portion of the complementary nameplate on the adjoining area of the closure can be removed, thereby causing the two complementary portions of the nameplate to form an irreparable separation. It is thus impossible to realign the two parts of the nameplate at a later date in order to reuse the container for fraudulent purposes.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the system of the invention can be modified so that the nameplate can straddle the closure means and the adjacent part of the container closure or a part integral with the closure.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the present invention also provides a method of tightly closing a container having a closure, the method comprising adding a removable seal between said closure and the container, and etching at such a location A nameplate straddling the closure and container such that when the container is first opened to remove the closure, the portion of the nameplate on the closure and the portion of the container are separated.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a container having means for indicating that the container has been opened, said means comprising an inscribed nameplate straddling said sealing means and container or closure, such that upon opening These two parts of the nameplate are separated when the container is removed from the closure which is added to the closure of the container and is intended to be removed when the container is opened and thus destroyed.

Describe below with reference to accompanying schematic diagram, thereby can better understand the present invention and illustrate other some features of the present invention, these accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred embodiment of the present invention non-limitatively, and they are:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the neck of a bottle equipped with the device for ensuring authenticity of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the top view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line III-III of Fig. 2 .

As a non-limiting example, the container shown in FIG. 1 equipped with means for guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin of the production in the container is a bottle 1 . The bottle 1 has a body 2 in conventional manner extending towards the top to form a neck 3 suitable for pouring a product, in this case a liquid 4 . The container or bottle 1 is provided with a sealing closure device 5, which in this example consists of a stopper, which of course may be replaced by a cap for a different type of container having a larger opening. The bottle 1 shown in the figures has sealing means 6 fixed between the capping means or stopper 5 and the neck 3 of the bottle 1 . The seal is broken by intentional tearing by the consumer when the container is opened for the first time. In this case, the first sealing means are constituted by a first cap 6a enclosing the aforementioned stopper 5 and extending concentrically around the neck 3 of the bottle 1 . This cap 6a is generally made of pewter, metal tin, or a composite material of aluminum and/or plastic, and this cap has a product trademark mark. At the joining plane 8 of the bung 5 with the neck 3, the cap 6a has a tear strip 7 which is broken when the bung is turned to be opened. The tear strip 7 consists of two rows of horizontal perforations formed by successive holes arranged along a line.

In addition, the cap 6a itself is covered by a cover 6b made of heat-shrinkable material, which also has a tear strip 9, but vertical, at least two columns of perforations 9a and 9b formed by continuous holes arranged along a line constitute. Therefore tear the first strip between the two rows of perforations 9a and 9b on the cover 6b, remove the cover from the neck 3, and then tear the strip between the two horizontal perforations 7a and 7b on the cap 6a. Tear the strip, release the stopper, and the bottle can be opened.

The cover 6b is preferably made of a transparent material and its length _h2 is greater than the length _h1 of the cap 6a for reasons which will be explained below.

The material from which the cover 6b is made can be, for example, polyvinyl chloride.

According to a characteristic of the invention, the sealing device 6b is incorporated in means 10 of visual indication of first opening, which device 10 consists of an etched nameplate 11 straddling the sealing device 6b and the container already in place. 1, so that the portion 11a of the nameplate 11 formed on the own material of the container 1a becomes irremovable, while the complementary portion 6c of the nameplate 11 formed on the adjoining area 6c of the sealing device 6b is in the process of tearing the seal. The device 6b is then removed, thereby causing irreversible separation of the two complementary parts 11a and 11b of the nameplate 11, so that it is not possible to re-use the container 1 fraudulently by pairing the two parts at a later time.

As mentioned above, the sealing means 6b in this case consist of a heat-shrinkable sleeve which is put over the cap 6a.

Obviously, it is also possible to display the nameplate 11 on the adjacent part of the cap 6a and the bottle 1, but this method is not advisable, because it is easy to cheat in this case, and the counterfeiter can replace the cap with a longer opaque cap 6a, so that it covers the portion 11a of the nameplate 11 etched on the area 1a of the bottle 1.

This is why the cover 6b is longer than the cap 6a. In fact, since modern methods cannot produce alloy sleeves 6a as long as plastic sleeves 6b, part 11a of nameplate 11 remains on empty vessel 1, making it impossible to fraudulently recap it with a longer cap.

It is best to partially engrave the nameplate on the sleeve made of heat shrink material after it is in place, because the tolerances of the original sleeve and its random shrinkage, combined with the tolerances of the etching method used and the tolerances of the It is practically impossible to bring together the two parts 11a and 11b of the nameplate 11 after the carrier part 11b of the sleeve 6b has been destroyed.

According to another preferred feature of the present invention, the nameplate 11 can be made by etching, for example, scanning bit by bit with a laser beam, which is suitable for ablating the glass of the bottle 1 in the area 1a, and ablating the sleeve 6b in the area 6c of plastic.

For carrying out this etching work, cover 6b preferably has such thickness, makes laser beam only carry out the ablation of etching on this cover and does not allow laser directly to pass this cover, thereby the symbol of the part 11b that forms nameplate 11 is not It will be cut and will not be separated from the lower edge of the above-mentioned sleeve 6b.

According to another preferred feature of the present invention, if the glass color of the bottle 1 is very light, and it is not easy to clearly see the laser-etched nameplate, it can be partially colored 12 in the area of the nameplate 11, and the color should be translucent on the one hand. In order to prevent deceptive masking by covering with a new color, on the other hand it must be able to be peeled off or scraped off so that the consumer can be informed to check the authenticity of the product 4. The area of the etched nameplate 11 can be colored 12 by a paint method, screen printing method or tempography method.

The nameplate 11 can be composed of a series of numbers, letters, symbols or their combination with specific marks.

The indicia described above are formed on the bottom of the neck of the bottle, but obviously it could also be formed on the upper portion of the sleeve, straddling the stopper or a member integral with the stopper.

It should also be noted that the coloring can be formed with an adhesive.

Claims (19)

1. A system for assuring the authenticity of the origin of a product in a container fitted with a closure and comprising a seal secured between the outer portion of the closure and the container such that when the container is opened for the first time , the sealing device is broken due to intentional tearing, this system is characterized in that the sealing device is combined with a device for visually indicating the first opening, the display device is formed by straddling the above-mentioned The closure consists of an engraved nameplate on the immediately adjacent part of the container, the part of the nameplate formed directly on the container material cannot be removed, while the complementary part of the nameplate formed on the area adjacent to the closure will not be removed when the closure is torn are detachable, thereby causing an irreversible separation of the two complementary parts of the nameplate. 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the container is a bottle, in particular a glass bottle; the means for sealing the cap on the bottle consists of a sleeve surrounding said cap and fitting concentrically over the neck of the bottle. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said sleeve is made of a wrapper made of heat shrinkable material. 4. System according to any one of claims 2 and 3, characterized in that the cover has at least one vertical tear strip consisting of at least one perforation formed by a row of continuous holes arranged along a line. 5. A system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the sleeve covers a first cap which fits sealingly over the stopper and the upper part of the neck of the bottle. 6. System according to claim 5, characterized in that the height ( _hi ) of the cap is smaller than the height ( _h2 ) of the sleeve covering it. 7. A system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the cover is made of translucent plastic. 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the cover is made of polyvinyl chloride. 9. A system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 8, characterized in that the nameplate is etched with a laser suitable for etching the material of the container and the material of the sleeve. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the sleeve has a thickness such that the laser can only ablatively etch the sleeve and not pass through the sleeve such that the indicia-forming portion of the nameplate is not cut, thereby Can not disengage with the lower edge of above-mentioned cover. 11. A system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 10, characterized in that the area of the nameplate is coloured, said colouration being preferably translucent and removable by the consumer. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the etched areas are colored using paint or screen printing. 13. System according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the nameplate consists of a series of letters and/or numbers and/or symbols. 14. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the nameplate is instead bridged over said closure and the closure of the container or an integral part of the closure. 15. A method of securing a container having a closure, the method comprising: applying a removable seal between said closure and said container; forming a nameplate bridging the seal and the container, in a manner is such that when the container is opened for the first time to remove the closure, the portion of the nameplate on the closure and container is separated. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said sealing means is heat shrunk around the neck of said container. 17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that said nameplate is etched with a laser. 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the thickness of the sealing device and the power of the laser are such that the laser cannot completely cut through the sealing device. 19. A container having means for indicating that the container has been opened, said indicating means comprising an etched nameplate bridging the closure means and the adjoining portion of the container or closure such that upon opening the bottle to remove the closure means, both ends of the nameplate The parts are separated, and the above-mentioned sealing means is mounted on the closure of the above-mentioned bottle, which can be removed when the bottle is opened, thereby being destroyed.

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