Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~ W094/18087 ~15 5 7~ 2 PCT/GB94/00275
I
Container having means for guaranteeing the
authenticity of origin of a product therein
This invention relates to a container having a
system for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of a
product therein, and to a method of sealing such a
container.
This product, which may be of any kind, is held in
a container, which is generally but not necessarily
rigid.
As has just been pointed out, the system according
to the invention may be used for any product but it will
readily be understood that the products which are most
liable to be counterfeited are luxury products such as
fine alcoholic drinks, perfumes or cosmetics in general,
but there might equally be applications in the
pharmaceutical industry or even in the food industry.
In recent years, it has been found that
counterfeiting techniques have also evolved, in the
sense that the counterfeiters have judged that nothing
could be closer in appearance to an original container
than the container itself. Thus, counterfeit products
of dubious quality packaged in original containers
obtained from a network for recovering and recycling
these containers have appeared in certain parallel
markets.
In past years systems for combatting such
fraudulent operations have, of course, been envisaged
and attempts have been made to preserve the original
products by means for sealing the opening of the
container which, once opened, left signs of being torn
open.
Thus, it has been proposed that labels or adhesive
strips be applied between the closure of the container
and the container itself so that any handling of the
W094/18087 2 15 S 7 5 2 2 - PCT/GB94/00275 ~
closure in order to remove it causes at least partial
destruction of the guarantee label.
Security rings have also been proposed, arranged
between the closure and part of the neck of the
container and consisting of a frangible zone which can
be broken away as soon as the closurejb-egins to be
turned in order to remove it.
It is also known to place a sleeve of heat-
shrinkable material over the closure system of the
container and a part adjacent thereto.
Holograms have also been used, which are highly
sophisticated means, again placed on the areas of
opening of the containers.
Unfortunately, all these systems are reproducible
and counterfeiters have not hesitated to replace one
label with another, one security ring with another
similar ring or one hologram with another hologram. In
fact, they have only to remove the sealing components
damaged by first use and replace them with means which,
if not identical, are at least equivalent, the
substrate, in this case the container, re~ining totally
authentic as far as that is concerned.
Consequently, a first step in the present invention
consisted in concluding that the container should not
remain free from any trace of the seal after a first use
but on the contrary some traces should remain,
impossible to remove by scratching, gluing or mac~i ni ng,
without damaging the appearance of the container itself,
thus making it in any case unsuitable for re-use.
To this end, the present invention, from a first
aspect, relates to system for guaranteeing the
authenticity of origin of a product in a container
provided with a closure system and comprising sealing
means attached between an outer part of the closure
system and the container, so as to be capable of being
destroyed by deliberately tearing off when the container
is first opened, characterised in that the sealing means
~ wo 94"80~7 2 ~ 5 5 ~ S 2 rcTIGB94l00~7s
are associated with means for visually indicating this
first opening, which means consist of an engraved
inscription straddling said sealing means, once they are
in place, and an immediately adjacent part of the
container, the part of thë inscription made directly in
the material of the container being indelible, and the
complementary part of the inscription provided on an
adjacent zonet~of the sealing means being detached when
the sealing means are torn away as the container is
opened, thus causing irremediable separation of the two
complementary parts of the inscription. The possibility
of subsequent re-alignment of the two parts of the
inscription for the purposes of fraudulent re-use of the
container is thereby obviated.
The system according to the invention may be
modified, in a second aspect of the invention, such that
the inscription instead straddles the sealing means and
an adjacent part of the container closure or a component
integral therewith.
From a third aspect the invention also provides a
method of securing a container having closure means,
- comprising applying removable sealing means between said
closure means and the container, and making an engraved
inscription straddling the sealing means and the
25 container, in such a position that when the sealing
means is removed upon opening the container for the
first time, the parts of the inscription on the sealing
means and the container become separated.
From a yet further aspect, the invention provides a
30 container having means indicating opening of the
container, said means comprising an engraved inscription
s straddling sealing means applied to a closure of the
container and intended to be removed and thereby
destroyed on opening, and an adjacent part of the
35 container or closure, such that when the sealing means
is removed on opening, the two parts of the inscription
are separated.
WOg4/18087 PCT/GB94/00275
2~ 2
The invention will be better understood and further
features thereof will be described with the aid of the
following description, referring to the accompanying
diagrammatic drawings which illustrate, in a non-
restrictive capacity, a preferred embodiment of theinvention. In the drawings:
Figure 1 is a plan view of the neck of a bottle
equipped with a device for guarant,eeing authenticity
according to the invention.
Figure 2 is a top view according to Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a longit-]~l n~l section along the line
III-III in Figure 2.
As a non-restrictive example, the container shown
in the drawings and equipped with a device for
guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of the product
which it contains, is a bottle 1. This bottle 1
consists in the conventional way of a body 2 which
extends at the top into a neck 3 adapted to pour the
product, in this case a liquid 4. The container or
bottle 1 is equipped with a hermetic closure system 5,
which in this case consists of a stopper but might, of
course, be replaced by a lid in a different type of
container with a wider opening. The bottle 1 shown in
the drawings has sealing means 6 attached between an
outer part of the closure system or cork 5 and the neck
3 of the bottle 1. These means are adapted to be
destroyed by tearing open by a deliberate action on the
part of the consumer when the container is opened for
the first time. In the present case, first sealing
means consist of a first cap 6a enveloping said cork 5
and extending concentrically over the neck 3 of the
bottle 1. This type of cap 6a is generally made from a
lead and tin alloy, tin on its own or a composite of
aluminium and/or plastics, and bears markings relating
to the product brand. At the plane of junction 8 of the
cork 5 to the neck 3 the cap 6a has a tear strip 7 which
is adapted to be destroyed when the cork 5 is first
~ W094/l8n87 21 S 5 7 5 2 PCT/GB94/00~75
turned in order to open it. This strip 7 consists of
two horizontal perforations 7a, 7b forming a succession
of holes arranged in a line.
In addition, the cap 6a is itself covered by a
sleeve 6b formed from a sheath of heat-shrinkable
material, which also has a tear strip 9, this time
vertical, consisting of at least two perforations 9a and
9b formed by a succession of holes arranged in a line.
Thus, the bottle is opened by tearing first the strip
located between the two vertical perforations 9a, 9b on
the sleeve 6b, thus detaching it from the neck 3, and
then tearing the strip located between the two
horizontal perforations 7a, 7b of the cap 6a, thus
releasing the cork.
Preferably, the sleeve 6b is made of a transparent
material, of a length "h2" which is greater than the
length "hl" of the cap 6a, for reasons which will be
explained hereinafter.
The material of which the sleeve 6b is made may be
polyvinylchloride, for example.
According to a feature of the invention, the
sealing means 6b are associated with means lO for
visually indicating the first opening, which consists of
an engraved inscription 11 straddling said sealing means
6b once they are in position and an immediately adjacent
part la of the container 1, so that the part lla of the
inscription 11, made in the actual material of the
container la is thereby rendered indelible, whereas the
complementary part llb of the inscription 11 which is
provided on an adjacent zone 6c of the sealing means 6b
is removed when the sealing means is torn open, thus
, resulting in irremediable separation of the two
complementary parts lla, llb of the inscription 11,
without the possibility of subsequent re-alignment for
the purpose of fraudulent re-use of the container 1.
As mentioned hereinbefore, the sealing means 6b
mentioned above in this case consist of the heat
WO94/18087 PCTIGB94/00275
2 15~ S ~ - 6 -
-
shrinkable sleeve placed over the cap 6a.
Obviously, it would also be possible to provide the
inscription ll on the cap 6a and an adjacent part of the
bottle l, but this solution is not preferred because it
would then be easy to carry out fal~sification by
replacing the cap 6a with a longer, opaque, cap, to hide
the part lla of the inscription~ll engraved on the
bottle l in the zone la.
This is also the reason why the sleeve 6b is longer
than the cap 6a. In fact, since current methods cannot
produce alloy caps 6a in lengths as long as those of
plastic sleeves 6b, the part lla of the inscription ll
will still remain on the container l, without any
possibility of fraudulently recovering it with a longer
cap.
It is also preferred to make the inscription partly
on the sleeve of heat shrinkable material, once the
latter has been put in place, because the manufacturing
tolerances of the crude sleeve and its random shrinkage,
with the addition of the tolerances o~ the engraving
process used and those of the container consequently
make it virtually impossible to re-align the parts lla
and llb of the inscription ll after the sleeve 6b
bearing the part llb has been destroyed.
According to another important preferred feature of
the invention, the inscription ll is made by engraving,
for example using a laser beam travelling from point to
point, adapted to attack the glass of the bottle l in
its zone la and the plastics of the sleeve 6b in its
zone 6c.
In order to do this, the sleeve 6b is preferably of
a thickness such as to be attacked by the laser beam for
the purpose of engraving it but without allowing the
beam to pass right through it, so that the characters
making up part llb of the inscription ll are not cut
away and detached from the lower edge of said sleeve 6b.
According to another preferred feature of the
~ W094/l8n87 21 5 5 7 S Z PCTIGB94100275
invention, if the glass of the bottle 1 is relatively
light in colour, which does not assist the reading of
the laser engraving by contrast, local colouring 12 is
provided in the zone of the inscription 11, this
colouring being on the one hand translucent to prevent
its being fraudulently masked by superimposing a new
colour and, on the other hand, capable of being peeled
or scratched off to enable an informed consumer to check
the authenticity of the product 4. This colouring 12 of
the zone of the engraved inscription 11 is achieved by
applying paint or by silk screen printing or by
tempography.
The inscription 11 may consist of a series of
figures or letters or symbols or a combination thereof
in a particular code.
The marking described above is provided at the base
of the neck of the bottle, but obviously it may also be
provided on an upper part of the sleeve, straddling the
cork or a component integral therewith.
It should also be noted that the colouring may be
provided by means o~ an adhesive component.
