Patentamt Europaisches || || 1 1| || 1 1 1|| 1 1| 1 1|| || || || (19) J European Patent Office

Office europeen des brevets (11) EP 0 843 280 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publicationation A3: (51) |nt. CI.6: G06K 19/06 22.07.1998 Bulletin 1998/30

(43) Date of publication A2: 20.05.1998 Bulletin 1998/21

(21) Application number: 97120193.4

(22) Dateof filing: 18.11.1997

(84) Designated Contracting States: (72) Inventors: AT BE CH DE DK ES Fl FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC • KatO, Yoko, NL PT SE c/o Co., Ltd. Designated Extension States: Shinjuku-ku, -to (JP) AL LT LV MK RO SI • Hori, Keisuke, c/o Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (30) Priority: 18.11.1996 JP 306052/96 Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to (JP) 27.10.1997 JP 294443/97 (74) Representative: (71) Applicant: Muller-Bore & Partner DAI NIPPON PRINTING CO., LTD. Patentanwalte Tokyo 1 62-01 (JP) Graf inger Strasse 2 81671 Munchen (DE)

(54) Magnetic card

(57) A magnetic card in which a magnetic layer is successfully concealed without lowering the magnetic output of the magnetic layer and giving any restriction to the design of the card. Such a magnetic card can be produced in the following manner. A magnetic layer (magnetic stripe) 12 is formed on a substrate 11 by means of thermal transfer, and a thin film layer 13 is formed, by means of vacuum deposition or the like, on the entire surface of the substrate 1 1 including the sur- face of the magnetic layer 1 2 to conceal the magnetic layer 12. Patterns, etc. are printed on the surface of the thin film layer 13 to form a print layer 14, and a light-dif- F I 6. 2 f ractive structure layer 1 5 is further formed on the print layer 14 by means of thermal transfer. On the other hand, a print layer 14A is provided on the back surface of the substrate 1 1 , and a reverse side protective layer 16 is further provided on the print layer 14A to cover it. After these layers are formed to obtain a laminate, a card of a predetermined shape is punched from the CO laminate, and subjected to a post-treatment to finally < obtain a magnetic card 10. o CO CM CO CO o Q_ LU Printed by Xerox (UK) Business Services 2.16.3/3.4 EP 0 843 280 A3

European Patent Number J EUROPEAN SEARCH REPORT Application Office EP 97 12 0193

DOCUMENTS CONSIDERED TO BE RELEVANT Category Citation of document with indication, where appropriate. Relevant CLASSIFICATION OF THE of relevant passages to claim APPLICATION (lnt.CI.6) GB 2 270 499 A (PHH CARD SERVICES LTD) 16 1-12 G06K19/06 March 1994 * the whole document *

PATENT ABSTRACTS OF 1-5 vol. 015, no. 178 (M-1110), 8 May 1991 & JP 03 042298 A (T0PPAN PRINTING CO LTD), 22 February 1991, A * abstract * 6-12

X PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN 1-5 vol. 015, no. 310 (M-1144), 8 August 1991 & JP 03 114879 A (T0PPAN PRINTING CO LTD), 16 May 1991, A * abstract * 6-12

X PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN 1-4 vol. 016, no. 137 (M-1231), 7 April 1992 & JP 03 297699 A ( LTD), 27 December 1991, * abstract * TECHNICAL FIELDS SEARCHED (lnt.CI.6) W0 95 22454 A (CROWN ROLL LEAF INC) 24 6-12 G06K August 1995 * page 6, line 6 - page 13, line 17; figures 1-4 *

The present search report has been drawn up for all claims Place of search Date of completion of the search Examiner THE HAGUE 3 June 1998 Degraeve, A CATEGORY OF CITED DOCUMENTS T : theory or principle underlying the invention E : earlier patent document, but published on, or X : particularly relevant if taken alone after the filing date Y : particularly relevant if combined with another D : document cited in the application document of the same category L : document cited for other reasons A : technological background O : non-written disclosure & : member of the same patent family, corresponding P : intermediate document document

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