Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Label With Removable Component(S)”, for Approval (USPTO 20200175894)

2020 JUN 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Francoeur, Roger (Bennington, NE); Livingston, Timothy Darren (Corryton, TN); Shinkle, II, Robert L. (Peachtree Corners, GA); Lamb, Shane (Morristown, TN); Vied, Matthew (Lexington, KY), filed on December 3, 2018, was made available online on June 4, 2020.

The patent’s assignee is lconex LLC (Duluth, Georgia, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The ubiquitous label is available in a myriad of configurations for use in various applications, including specialty applications. A label can be imaged on a single side or both sides using inkjet printers, laser printers, and/or thermal printers.

“Once imaged with custom information, a label is typically affixed to a package, container, bottle, or other item. In some instances, the custom information may include confidential or sensitive information of a consumer.

“As an example, consider a consumer prescription that is imaged with the consumer’s private information, such as name, address, medication type, dosage amount, etc. When the consumer is finished with his/her prescription, the prescription container is generally thrown away and not recycled because of label having the consumer’s private information. Security-conscious consumers may use a marker to blot out their private information on the labels before discarding of their empty prescription bottles, which is inconvenient to these consumers. Unconcerned consumers may leave the private information on the discarded bottles, which exposes these consumer to potential identity theft or prescription theft of any refills that may still available with the prescription label still attached on the discarded prescription bottle.

“In the pharmaceutical setting, many consumers fail to pick up prescriptions for a variety of reasons or sometimes the pharmacy fills a same prescription twice in error resulting in two prescriptions, only one of which is valid and can be picked up by a consumer. In fact, the volume of unpicked-up prescriptions in the industry is a staggering number.

“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) levies substantial fines against pharmacist and pharmacies if those unpicked-up prescription bottles are recycled or thrown away with the label that includes the consumer’s private information. The labels are generally strongly adhered to the prescription bottles because of the HIPPA regulations that the label not be easily separated from the bottle (to prevent labels from falling off the bottles); thus, removal of the label is difficult and usually only partially successful, and when successful the bottle is often damaged in some manner.

“As a result, a large volume of these perfectly usable prescription bottles are destroyed, shredded, and thrown away by both pharmacies and consumers. This is not environmental friendly and results in a substantial expense to the pharmacies. Furthermore, consumers that are otherwise inclined to participate in recycling programs typically do not recycle their prescription bottles.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In various embodiments, a label with removable components, a roll of labels with removable components, and method of printing a label with removable components are provided.

“According to an embodiment, a label combination with removable components is provided. The label includes: a substrate having a front side and a back side, a first area defined on the front side, and a second area defined on the front side, wherein the second area representing an independent-removable label from the label.

“In an embodiment, a method of printing a label with removable components is provided. A print job includes print data associated with fields defined by a print media type for print media being processed through a printer. Print data that follows fields, which are associated with confidential data within the print data, are reformatted as reformatted print data, ensuring that the confidential data present in the print data are positioned to be imaged/printed on the print media associated with the print media type on an independent-removable label of the print media. The print job with the reformatted print data is provided to a print driver for printing on the print media with the confidential data imaged/printed on just the independent-removable label of the print media.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A label, comprising: a substrate having a front side and a back side; a first area defined on the front side; and a second area defined on the front side and the back side representing a removable-independent label from the label, wherein the back side includes a uniform coating of adhesive and wherein an edge back side of the back side corresponding to an edge of the second area includes an adhesive deadener applied over the corresponding adhesive that permits the edge of the second area to be grasped, lifted, and separated from the first area.

“2. The label of claim 1, wherein the front side includes a thermal-print coating selected from: a direct thermal print coating and a thermal transfer print coating.

“3. The label of claim 1, wherein the thermal-print coating includes a release coating applied over top of the thermal print coating.

“4.-9. (canceled

“10. The label of claim 1, wherein second area is outlined by a die cut perforation made through the substrate.

“11. The label of claim 10, wherein the edge of the second area is part of a substrate edge of the substrate, wherein the edge is a pull tab to remove the independent-removable label from the substrate.

“12. The label of claim 1 further comprising: a third area defined on the front side and the back side representing a second removable-independent label from the label.

“13. A label roll, comprising: a web or continuous sheet of a substrate; labels defined within the substrate; each label including a first area defined on the front side and the back side of the substrate and a second area defined on the front side and the back side of the substrate, wherein the second area representing an independent-removable label for the corresponding label, wherein the back side includes a uniform coating of adhesive, and wherein an edge back side for an edge of the independent-removable label and along the corresponding back side of the edge includes an adhesive deadender applied over the corresponding adhesive that permits the edge of the second area to be grasped, lifted, and separated from the first area.

“14. The label roll of claim 13, wherein each second area die cut as a perforation through the substrate.

“15. The label roll of claim 13, wherein each independent-removable label having the edge that shares a portion of a substrate edge of the substrate, the edge defining a pull tab to remove that independent-removable label from the corresponding label.

“16. The label roll of claim 13, wherein each label including a third area defined on the front side and the back side of the substrate, wherein the third area representing a second independent-removable label for the corresponding label.

“17.-20. (canceled)”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Francoeur, Roger; Livingston, Timothy Darren; Shinkle, II, Robert L.; Lamb, Shane; Vied, Matthew. Label With Removable Component(S). Filed December 3, 2018 and posted June 4, 2020. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220200175894%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200175894&RS=DN/20200175894

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