AU2018333476B2

AU2018333476B2 - Method for producing decorative paper or films and for protecting against the impermissible reproduction thereof

Info

Publication number: AU2018333476B2
Application number: AU2018333476A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Roland Heeger
Original assignee: Schattdecor AG
Current assignee: Schattdecor AG
Priority date: 2017-09-14
Filing date: 2018-09-10
Publication date: 2023-02-02
Anticipated expiration: 2038-09-10
Also published as: TW201932318A; MY208931A; RU2020112676A3; TWI765094B; CA3075438A1; AR112814A1; BR112020005076A2; DE102017128258A1; CN111094008B; WO2019052953A1; RU2020112676A; CN111094008A; EP3681729B1; AU2018333476A1; EP3681729A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing decorative paper or decorative films as a surface of furniture surfaces, walls, floors and room ceilings and for protecting against impermissible reproduction. According to the invention, digital image information of the desired decoration is produced, and a mark is embedded in the image information, by means of which mark the image information is changed. The changes are invisible in the printout, but the changes can be copied. The embedded mark is visible on a monitor by means of a software app.

Description

Schattdecor AG Our reference: S 6832 AU KI /ch

Method for Producing Decorative Paper or Films and for Protecting against the Impermissible Reproduction thereof

The invention relates to a method of manufacturing decorative paper or decorative film that form the surface of a decorative part, and of providing protection thereof against inadmissible duplication.

For furniture surfaces, walls, floors and room ceilings, increasingly highest quality decorative designs are printed on a decorative base paper or a decorative base film, creating the decorative paper or decorative film, and are applied to a carrier material over the entire surface, for example by laminating. Such decorative designs include, for example, imitation wood, stone replicas, photorealistic illustrations, but also graphic elements, textile and fancy patterns. Especially the creation of reproductions or replicas of natural materials such as wood or stone of such high quality that the observer has difficulties or is unable to distinguish a genuine natural surface from a printed decorative surface is extremely costly and elaborate. It is accordingly popular with counterfeiters to scan, by means of conventional scanners, the original decorative designs that are successful on the market and thereby to obtain the digital image files that are required for high-quality counterfeit products.

Decorative base papers are high-technology specialty papers that are printed with aqueous or solvent-containing ink systems or are further processed in an unprinted, single-color condition. Further processing is basically classified into the processes of impregnation, varnishing for furniture applications and pre impregnated decorative base papers, pressing onto wood-based materials or laminating onto wood-based materials or other panel-shaped materials.

Wood-based materials include particle board, fiberboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and highly compressed fiberboard. However, it is also possible to coat or laminate boards which can be manufactured from a large variety of materials such as, in particular, mineral materials, plastic materials or metals.

Another further processing of these papers is the production of decorative laminated panels, which are compressed from impregnated, printed and/or solid dyed coating base papers and core papers to form a homogeneous panel or are manufactured in a continuous process (cf. CPL).

Various possibilities have been contemplated or utilized in order to identify counterfeiting of decorative parts or of the decorative papers and decorative films or at least to make counterfeiting more difficult.

One of these possibilities consists in embedding patterns that are not visible to the human eye, so-called moire patterns, similar to those in bank notes. Such patterns will then not be detected by a scanner, but result in a falsification of the areas concerned, so that these areas are reproduced in black. One method of preventing forgeries in the past therefore consisted in incorporating such patterns into the decorative design which are then reproduced as black spots in the image file and appear as black spots on a corresponding printout. However, it is quite possible for an experienced copyist to cover these black spots again with other copied sections of the overall decorative design, possibly accompanied by an adjustment of the transition edges. Consequently, this procedure is not only very expensive, but does not provide optimum protection. Moreover, as the detail fidelity of scanners increases, such protective measures become increasingly ineffective.

A further option that has been employed in the past consists in digitally embedding concealed marks in the decorative design, which are also printed but cannot be detected by the human eye. When the decorative design is then scanned, a software translates the concealed picture elements and compares them with stored picture elements. If there is a match, the decorative design is referred to as the original. An essential point of this procedure is that the hidden information cannot be reproduced on the copy during scanning and printing. Unlike the black spots previously mentioned, the inadmissibly copied decorative design has remained unchanged for the observer and is similar to the original or almost identical to the original. However, it is also important to this method that this copy protection is not undermined by more powerful scanners and printers in the future.

Therefore, a permanent creation of new measures for copy protection is involved, which are based in particular on the fact that the number of pixels per square inch increases and ever smaller pixels can be used for encryption.

It is the object of the invention to provide a method used for manufacturing decorative paper or decorative film that form the surface of a decorative part, and used for protecting the decorative paper or the decorative film against inadmissible duplication.

The method according to the invention is characterized by the steps of:

(a) preparing digital image information defining a desired decorative design;

(b) embedding a mark into the image information of the desired decorative design while creating modified image information, wherein when the modified image information is printed out, the modifications are not perceptible to the human eye and thus the embedded mark is not perceptible to the human eye;

(c) printing on the decorative paper or the decorative film to form the desired decorative design inclusive of the embedded mark by means of the modified image information;

(d) providing a software app which is stored on a computer coupled to a camera;

(e) providing a monitor which is coupled to the computer;

(f) wherein the software app is configured to filter out the embedded mark from the image taken by means of the camera and to reproduce it by means of the monitor.

The method according to the invention differs fundamentally from the known methods mentioned above. The data which are embedded in the original image information for the desired decorative design and which modify the image information are not visible to the human eye, but are visible with a software app. Unlike in the prior art, however, the embedded image information can be also copied, more specifically using commercially available scanners and printers, in particular scanners having a resolution of 300, 600 or 1,200 dpi and printers having a print resolution of only 600 dpi, preferably 1,200 dpi, or printing cylinders engraved with screened or halftone data for the gravure printing process. Printing the decorative design using the modified image information thus provides a decorative design that is very close to the original decorative design. However, since the mark is printed as well by the product pirate without him or her being aware thereof, this allows the original manufacturer to identify quickly and unambiguously that his or her decorative design was copied, rather than a similar decorative design.

In particular, the mark is a registered, protected trademark and/or a registered, protected design; the unauthorized product pirate prints the protected trademark and/or the protected design at the same time without noticing it, which then becomes immediately visible by means of the software app distributed. A further special feature results in that, rather than the app recognizing the decorative design on the basis of a few embedded marks and then reproducing a stored trademark/design or, as is the case in the prior art, the indication "original", the mark (in the preferred embodiment, the trademark or the registered design) itself is contained in the decorative design and is only displayed with the aid of the software app.

There are various options, which are, however, very well known in the prior art, for embedding the mark into the image information of the desired decorative design, and which can be utilized in the present invention. For one thing, it is possible to superimpose, as it were, the mark on the original decorative design, similar to a so-called picture noise, also referred to as noise pattern, which is described in connection with Figure 13 of DE 696 20 751 T2. The respective technology described in this document is explicitly incorporated in the present application as a way of embedding the mark and of filtering out the mark after the printing process as an option to carrying out some steps of the method according to the invention.

Further similar methods for the same purpose, which can also be applied in the method according to the invention, are described in EP 1 019 868 B1 and in EP 1 923 830 A2.

A simplified method of embedding and filtering out the mark can be broadly explained roughly as follows: The image information for the desired original decorative design is divided into pixels that form a certain signal, which is then detected by the scanner. For example, in first surface sections with a plurality of pixels, minimal color contaminations or color value shifts of the decorative design can be effected in this area, by which the signal is also shifted. The color value shifts are so subordinate that they cannot be perceived by the human eye, but indeed by an appropriate software. This results in larger pixels, for example, consisting of numerous individual pixels that constitute a field with a color value shift. A neighboring field (second surface sections) may, for example, have no color value shift or a color value shift in the opposite direction so that, all in all, this results in a type of black field and a type of white field (at the first and second surface sections, respectively) in the form of oversized pixels. The determination of this/these color value shift(s) can be performed, for example, in the ways as mentioned in the above-cited documents. For example, the decorative design may be stored with unmodified color values. This decorative design constitutes a field of individual signals, which are then subtracted from the image information determined, or more precisely from the signals thereof, so that a field with black and white pixels then remains as a value, for example, which represents the non visible mark in the form of the protected trademark and/or the protected design. If the unlawful printing by the pirate copyist should already result in an overall color shift due to the other printer or due to a mediocre scan, this color shift is first of all recognized by the software app and, if the app knows the correct color values, is shifted towards the correct color values, so that the correct color values are then available again as a starting point for the subsequent analysis, in order to proceed therefrom to subtract the stored data and signals and in this way make the initially non-visible mark visible. It is also possible to view the color shift only as graduated gray scale values and to recognize the color shift present in the original data as a pattern here as well.

The visible mark preferably consists of pixels which each have a size of at least 2 x 2 mm. This means that these pixels are composed of many individual pixels. This not only facilitates embedding the mark, but also detection thereof.

Preferably, the decorative paper or the decorative film is a coating material for furniture surfaces, furniture films, walls, floors or room ceilings.

The printed decorative paper or the printed decorative film is applied to a carrier part across an area, this carrier part being a plate or panel, for example.

Optionally, the carrier part is made of wood, fiber material or plastic material.

The printing of the decorative paper or the decorative film is performed in a so called continuous printing process, in particular in a gravure or digital printing process. These processes ensure the high qualities required.

Preferably, the decorative design is an imitation wood, a stone replica or a textile pattern, the embedded mark being formed to differ therefrom. This means that the embedded mark is not an imitation of wood if the decorative design is an imitation of wood, not a stone replica if the decorative design is a stone replica, and not a textile pattern if the decorative design is a textile pattern.

As already mentioned before, the mark is preferably composed of pixels and forms a pattern. Alternatively, of course, a word or a word/figurative trademark or a registered and protected design may also be used as a mark.

Preferably, the mark has a size of at least 20 x 20 mm and/or consists of at least 8 x 8 oversized pixels which, in particular, each have a size of 2 x 2 mm, as mentioned above.

Additional decorative design recognition patterns which are specific to the particular decorative design and are not visible to the human eye can also be embedded and printed into the decorative design. These separate decorative design recognition patterns serve as a unique signal which is specific to the respective decorative design and which the app can detect. This means, for example, that after taking a photo of the decorative design using his/her mobile phone, the user can not only recognize the previously mentioned mark on the app, but can select, in the app, to obtain specific information about the decorative design, such as, e.g., the designation of the decorative design, the manufacturer, characteristics of the decorative design, or also prices. Where applicable, information can also be obtained in this way as to whether the decorative design just photographed is presumably or even certainly a plagiarism. To this end, optionally an arrangement of individual extremely small pixels can additionally also constitute a code that cannot be duplicated in conventional scanners and printers.

Also, the noise generated by the scanning process can be made use of to bring about a comparison with the original data and identify a copy.

As already mentioned above, data on the particular decorative design may be stored in the app or on a server via an Internet connection; the data can be retrieved using the app as soon as the particular decorative design recognition pattern is also identified.

Non-visible codes that are unique to the kind of decorative design itself can be embedded in the decorative design at the edge, e.g. at the corners of the mark. Users can then use an app and an external database to inquire about the decorative design type.

Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description below and from the accompanying drawings, to which reference is made and in which:

- Figure 1 shows a decorative design that can be manufactured by the method according to the invention, with a mark inserted and made visible;

- Figure 2 shows the mark according to Figure 1, without the decorative design;

- Figure 3 shows individual method steps in the method according to the invention; and

- Figure 4 shows a method step for producing a decorative part provided with the decorative paper or the decorative film according to the invention.

A method of manufacturing and protecting against inadmissible duplication of printed decorative paper or printed decorative film 10 will be explained below, by means of which a decorative part is produced.

Such a decorative part can be in the form of a furniture surface, a wall, floor or room ceiling. Such decorative parts usually consist of a carrier part, in particular a panel 12, and the previously mentioned decorative paper or decorative film 10, which are connected to each other over their entire surface, as is illustrated in a stylized manner by means of the roll 14 in Figure 4.

Such a decorative paper comprises a so-called base paper in the form of a high-technology specialty paper, which is printed on with aqueous or solvent- containing ink systems. After the printing process, the decorative paper is impregnated, in the case of pre-impregnation it is possibly varnished, and compressed with the carrier part 12. Alternatively, the carrier part can be laminated with the printed, varnished pre-impregnated paper.

As an alternative to a paper, printed decorative films are also employed for the same purpose and using the same manufacturing steps or similar manufacturing steps. Such films are usually made of thermoplastic materials, for example PVC, PP, PET and the like.

The carrier parts are usually made of wood, fiber material or plastic. Of course, other materials may also be used, onto which, for example, the decorative paper or the decorative film is laminated, for example mineral materials, metals or mixed forms of all the above materials.

A decorative design is applied to the decorative paper or the decorative film by gravure printing or digital printing, the decorative design being an imitation of wood, a stone replica, photorealistic illustrations, for example, but also graphic elements or textile and fancy patterns.

Figure 1 illustrates a decorative design, here an imitation of wood, which was generated on the computer. This can be done, for example, by photographing individual sections of a wood and subsequently further processing them digitally in order to reproduce a perfect decorative wood design which, on the one hand, looks natural, i.e. genuine, and, on the other hand, is not obviously so perfect in terms of its decorative design structure that it is regarded as too perfect and artificial at first glance. Accordingly, a digital image information is created on the computer for this desired decorative design, by means of which the decorative design can be manufactured by gravure printing or digital printing.

A mark 18 is embedded into this decorative design on the computer, which is again depicted separately in Figure 2 and which represents a protected, registered trademark and/or a registered, protected design.

Embedding the mark 18 is performed in such a way that the image information previously generated for the desired decorative design is modified to a minimum degree such that the human eye does not perceive this modification when the modified image information is printed out later.

Figure 1 thus shows a representation which does not exist in reality, since the mark 18 is visible here in addition to the wood imitation. However, it should be appreciated here that the mark 18 is relatively large, at least 20 x 20 mm in size, and in the present case consists of individual oversized pixels, namely of fields of at least 8 x 8 pixels, in the present case 10 x 10 pixels. Some of the fields are displayed in black, the others are transparent. Each pixel -- one pixel 20 is provided with a reference number for identification purposes - consists, of course, of many single pixels for printing and for the image information, depending on the respective software, possibly the scanner or the printing device.

By embedding the mark, the initial original image information for the desired decorative design is modified. This altered image information would result in a decorative design which, when printed out, does not differ to the human eye from the initial original decorative design.

In the present introduction to the specification, it has been discussed, also with reference to three patent applications/patents, how the embedding of the mark is carried out. These methods also apply to the example described.

The modification of the image information and thus also the modification of the printed out decorative design is configured such that it would be captured by means of a scanner (including cameras, in particular those of smartphones or tablets) and reproduced accordingly in a printout of the scanned image.

Normally, in fact, after printing the decorative paper or decorative film to form the desired decorative design by means of the altered image information, pictures of this original are taken by pirate copyists using cameras or high-performance scanners and corresponding copies are printed.

A software app is stored on a computer 22, which includes not only conventional computers, but also smartphones, tablets and the like; this should also be understood to mean that the app accesses a server and the software or part of the software of the app runs there.

Coupled to the computer 22 is a camera 21 (in the case of smartphones or tablets this is the integrated camera), which can be used to take images of the decorative design shown in Figure 1.

Further coupled to the computer 22 is a monitor 24, which in the case of a smartphone or tablet is the monitor integrated therein.

The software app is configured to filter out the embedded mark 18 and thus the protected trademark and/or the registered, protected design from the picture of the decorative design 10 taken using the camera 21 as indicated in Figure 3, and to reproduce it by means of the monitor 24 as is indicated in Figure 3.

The individual black pixels 20, for example, are areas in which a slight color shift has been performed, and the white areas in the square field of 10 x 10 pixels are areas in which no color shift, or else some other distinguishable color shift, has been performed.

The mark 18 is, for example, stored in the computer or in a server 30 coupled via an Internet connection, and can therefore be retrieved. For example, and this is not to be understood in a limiting sense, the photo taken can be examined in the background to find a quick match of a few pixels with the stored pattern, and then to check the adjoining areas in detail for a match with the mark, in order that processing is effected more quickly.

The image information obtained by means of the photo (a scan is also intended to fall within the term "photo") is used to generate signal values, from which the predefined signal values of the decorative wood design, which are also stored either on the computer or on the server 30, are subtracted, so that the areas are depicted with a color shift, in this case the black areas. This means that no stored mark is reproduced, which presumably reproduces the mark stored in a concealed manner in the image, but actually exclusively the mark on the photographed decorative design is reproduced. Since the unlawful duplication of this mark constitutes a trademark and/or design infringement, the pirate copyist is a trademark and/or design infringer.

The marks 18 are applied multiply on a decorative design, preferably spaced apart from each other. This means that not the entire decorative design is completely "plastered" with this mark; rather, numerous marks 18 are incorporated into the decorative design so as to be scattered either evenly or unevenly.

With a size of at least 20 x 20 mm, the mark 18 is large enough that it can be captured with sufficient accuracy by a smartphone when the entire decorative design is photographed.

Such decorative designs are printed in continuous printing, i.e. the paper or film is withdrawn from a roll so that wide webs of endless length are produced.

The decorative pattern itself is repeated after at least a few meters.

In addition, information can also be embedded into the decorative design by steganography, by means of which the computer 22 or the server 30 then recognizes the decorative design itself and can reproduce information on the monitor 24, containing, for example, information about the particular decorative design, the manufacturer, the order number, the characteristics, etc.

This information may be stored either in the computer 22 or on the server 30. If a server 30 is used, an Internet connection 32 between the server 30 and the computer 22 is of course necessary.

Using steganography, respective decorative design recognition patterns are utilized, which are made up of individual, very small pixels that would not be visible in Figure 1. These decorative design recognition patterns may, but need not, be reproduced on the counterfeit item during printing and prior scanning by a pirate copyist. Where required, the steganography technique employed can make a scanning or printing by means of conventional devices impossible.

Claims

1. A method of, on the one hand, manufacturing decorative paper or decorative film for creating a surface of a decorative part and, on the other hand, of protecting against inadmissible duplication, characterized by the steps of:

(a) preparing digital image information defining a desired decorative design (10);

(b) embedding a mark (18) into the image information of the desired decorative design while creating modified image information, wherein when the modified image information is printed out, the modifications are not perceptible to the human eye and thus the embedded mark is not perceptible to the human eye;

(d) providing a software app which is stored on a computer (22) coupled to a camera (21);

(e) providing a monitor (24) which is coupled to the computer (22);

(f) wherein the software app is configured to filter out the embedded mark (18) from the image taken by means of the camera and to reproduce it by means of the monitor (24).

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the decorative paper or the decorative film is a coating material for furniture surfaces, walls, floors or room ceilings.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the printed decorative paper or the printed decorative film is adapted for planar application to a carrier part (12).

4. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the printing is effected in a continuous printing process, in particular in gravure or digital printing.

5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mark (18) is a pattern composed of oversized pixels (20), each oversized pixel having a pixel size of at least 2 x 2 mm.

6. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the embedded mark (18) is a registered protected trademark and/or a registered protected design.

7. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the decorative design is an imitation wood, a stone replica or a textile pattern and in that the embedded mark is formed to differ therefrom.

8. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mark (18) has a size of at least 20 x 20 mm.

9. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mark (18) consists of at least 8 x 8 pixels.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that each pixel has a size of at least 2 x 2 mm.

11. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a decorative design recognition pattern which is specific to the particular decorative design and is not visible to the human eye is embedded and printed into the decorative design.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that data on the particular decorative design is stored in the software app or on a server (30) via an Internet connection, which data can be retrieved using the software app as soon as the particular decorative design recognition pattern is recognized.

13. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mark is optically superimposed on the original decorative design.

Fig. 1

18

Fig. 2