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EP0782108A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

A method generating digital tokens from a subset of addressee information

Assignee: Pitney Bowes Inc
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Filing: 1996-12-19
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-12-19
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Abstract

Abstract A method for generating postage evidence includes providing addressee information separated into a plurality of address fields. A predetermined section of each address field, appropriate for authentication purposes, is selected to obtain selected address data. An error correction code is generated for the selected address data and a secure hash is generated of the selected address data. The secure hash is sent with postal data, including postage amount and date, to a digital token generation process that generates at least one digital token using the secure hash for evidencing postage. An indicia including the digital token and the postal data is generated and then printed on a mail piece with the error correction code and the addressee information. In a digital token verification process, the addressee information and the error correcting code are read from the mailpiece and the postal data is read from the indicia. An error correction algorithm is used to determine if errors are correctable. If correctable, a predetermined section of each address field is selected to obtain selected address data. A secure hash of the selected address data is generated and sent with the postal data to a digital token verification process.

Inventors

  • 👤 Robert A. Cordery
  • 👤 Frank M. D'ippolito
  • 👤 Leon A. Pintsov

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-29 22:25
CPC Classifications
G; G07; G07B; G07B17/00; G07B17/00733; G07B17/00185; G07B17/00435; G07C; G07C9/00; G07C9/30; G07C9/32; G07C9/33; G06; G06F; G06F11/00; G06F11/07; G06F11/08; G06F11/10; G06F11/1008; G07B2017/00443; G07B2017/00741; G07B2017/00782; G07B2017/00822; G07B2017/0083; G07B2017/00951

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 4
Claim 1
Independent Claim 171 words
A method for verifying postage evidencing in an open metering system, the method comprising the steps of: generating at an open metering system an error correction code for selected sections of a destination address; generating a first secure hash of the selected sections of the destination address; generating at least one digital token using the first secure hash, postage amount and date; generating an indicia including the digital token and postal data corresponding to the destination address; printing the indicia, the destination address and the error correction code on a mailpiece; receiving the mailpiece for verification of postage evidencing; reading the error correction code printed on the mailpiece and the postal data from the indicia using an optical character reader; performing an error correction algorithm on the error correction code to determine if errors are correctable; if correctable, generating a second secure hash of the selected sections of the destination address; verifying the postage evidencing on the mailpiece from the second secure hash and the postal data read from the mailpiece.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 122 words
A method for authenticating postage evidencing, the method comprising the steps of: providing addressee information separated into a plurality of address fields; selecting a predetermined section of each address field to obtain selected address data, each section being appropriate for authentication purposes; generating an error correction code for the selected address data; generating a first secure hash of the selected address data; sending the first secure hash and postal data, including postage amount and date, to a digital token generation process; generating at least one digital token using the first secure hash for evidencing postage; generating an indicia including the digital token and the postal data; and printing the indicia, the addressee information, and the error correction code on a mail piece.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 86 words
The method of claim 1 comprising the further steps of: reading the addressee information from the mailpiece and the postal data from the indicia; reading the error correcting code; performing an error correction algorithm to determine if errors are correctable; if correctable, selecting a predetermined section of each address field to obtain selected address data, each section being appropriate for authentication purposes; generating a second secure hash of the selected address data; and verifying the postage evidencing using the second secure hash and the postal data.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 22 words
The method of claim 3 comprising the further step of: informing a recognition process of a failure whenever errors are not correctable.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US4757537A Cited
US4775246A Cited
US4725718A Cited
US4831555A Cited
US4873645A Cited

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