Method and apparatus for generating personal identification numbers for use in consumer promotions
CA 2217764 C · Owner: Catalina Marketing International, Inc. · Inventors: Beach, Kirk W.; Mercer, George E.
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
A system for generating authorization codes such as, personal identification numbers at the point of distribution of, certificates of value on which the authorization codes are to be printed or otherwise encoded. Because the authorization codes are generated in real time, there is no need to store and safeguard an inventory of preprinted certificates or even an, inventory of activated authorization codes. The principles of the invention apply both to systems for generating incentive award certificates and to systems for generating purchased certificates of value. The incentive awards or certificates of value are tokens of prepayment for a service such as long-distance, telephone service or …
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Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed February 14, 1997 and granted January 22, 2002. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended February 14, 2017.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by February 14, 2019.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
Timeline From CIPO dates
Sources & verification
Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.