Luggage tag for inserting and protecting personal identifying data and method of use

Abstract

 Luggage tag for inserting and protecting personal identifying data, characterized in that it comprises:
- a support (1) for housing a label (10) containing the personal data of the luggage's owner;
- a self-adhesive and foldable flap (2) made out of transparent plastic, for the protection of the label;
- an anti-adhesive extractable film (3) provided with a gripping tongue (4) for the extraction of the same as well as the gluing of the transparent flap (2) to the support (1);
- a toothed band (5) provided with a one-way closing buckle (6) for making the tag un-removable from the luggage,

wherein said support and said band are one single body.
The method of use of said tag is run automatically by means of a central computer station in the_ºseat of the firm providing the service, containing a database (12) and a software for saving and working out the data sent by the single selling points, by the clients and by those who find the lost luggage.

Description

[0001] The present invention concerns the field of personal luggage transport.

[0002] In particular, the present invention concerns a device to be applied to a luggage and containing the personal data of its owner, so as to protect said data and to allow to trace the luggage in case of loss.

[0003] It is known that the devices used at present, commonly called tags or name tags, arranged for containing personal data, do not assure an appropriate resistance and are easily removable both by means of voluntary manual actions as well as by means of incidental mechanical actions like bumps, rubbing and pulling.

[0004] The tags in use mainly comprise a housing, usually out of plastic, leather or other material that allows the insertion of a card or of a sheet of paper on which there are written the personal data of the luggage owner and that can be read from the transparent side of the housing; said housing is applied to the luggage by means of a strap, a band or a string.

[0005] In case of loss, the luggage often remains without identification tag or with data partially deleted or faded or in any case partially illegible, which makes the recovery of the luggage nearly impossible.

[0006] It is the aim of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned inconveniences.

[0007] In particular, the main aim of the present invention is to make said tag resistant and unmovable, due to both manual forcing as well as to incident, to protect the personal data of the luggage owner from possible deletion and to prevent the loss of the data.

[0008] A further aim is to ease the recovery of the lost luggage by means of a procedure for the identification of the personal data of the luggage's owner contained in the tag, the tracing of the luggage and the return of the same to its owner.

[0009] The aims set forth are reached by means of a luggage tag according to the present invention, for inserting and protecting personal identifying data, characterized in that it comprises:

• a support for housing a label containing the personal data of the luggage's owner;
• a self-adhesive and foldable flap made out of transparent plastic, for the protection of the label;
• an anti-adhesive extractable film provided with a gripping tongue for the extraction of the same as well as the gluing of the transparent flap to the support;
• a toothed band provided with a one-way closing buckle for making the tag un-removable from the luggage,

wherein said support and said band are one single body.

[0010] The device according to the present invention has the following advantages:

• the self-adhesive transparent flap and the anti-adhesive film assure an appropriate protection and preservation of the personal data from abrasions and deletion and a greater resistance of the label containing the data;
• once the tag is sealed, it becomes all one with the label, thus assuring a greater resistance to bumps and tampering, as well as a perfect preservation in time;
• the toothed band with a one-way closing buckle for the application of the tag to the luggage confers a greater guarantee of maintaining the tag fixed to the luggage, as it is impossible to remove the same without a cutting tool;

• it offers a good alternative to the old paper labels used by travel agencies, which are not very resistant and subject to ripping causing the loss of the informations relative to the luggage and to its legitimate owner;
• it allows, furthermore, to prevent the inconvenience of opening the luggage in case of lack of an identification tag in search of any clue for the identification of the luggage's owner.

[0011] It is part of the present invention the method of use of the tag as well, which allows to perform in safe, quick and automatic way the identification of the personal data of the luggage's owner contained in the tag, the identification of the found luggage and the return of the same to the legitimate owner.

[0012] The present invention will be described more in detail hereinbelow, relating to the enclosed drawings, which represent a preferred non-limiting embodiment example thereof, wherein:

figure 1 shows a partially exploded axonometric view of the tag according to the present invention, with an exemplification of the insertion of a label and of the extraction of the anti-adhesive film;

figure 2 shows a block scheme of the method of use of the device according to the present invention.

[0013] Relating to the details of the figures, the tag according to the present invention consists of three main elements:

• a support 1, made out of plastic material, arranged for housing an adhesive label 10;
• a flap 2, made out of transparent plastic material, foldable and self-adhesive on the side turned towards said support 1;
• an anti-adhesive film 3, that may be extracted and provided with a gripping tongue 4;
• a toothed band 5, provided with a one-way closing buckle 6, or prisoner, engaging the teeth of the band in only one direction.

[0014] The support 1 and the band 5 form one single body made out of plastic material, obtained by one single die casting so as to guarantee a greater resistance of the tag.

[0015] Said support is provided with a flap 2, self-adhesive and made out of transparent plastic material, fixed to said support 1 by only one side turned towards said band 5 and remaining free on its other sides so as to allow the housing of a label 10 containing the personal data, onto said support. Said label 10 is laid onto said support 1 and the anti-adhesive film 3 is removed with the help of gripping tongue 4, by stripping. The film will start moving from the flap 2 from the side opposite to the tongue, and precisely from the side fixed to the support 1 of the tag; at the same time, under the pressure of the fingers, said flap 2 is stretched out so as to make it adhere onto a label 10. In this way, once the film adheres, the label and the personal data are perfectly protected.

[0016] Once the toothed band 5 has been applied to the luggage and blocked by means of a buckle 6, inside which it may slide only one-way, the tag can be removed from the luggage only with a cutting tool, unlike the known tags.

[0017] Relating to figure 2, the method of use of said tag comprises the following devices and components:

• providing personal computer positions 7 arranged in the selling points of the tags, allowing to store the personal data of the buyer and to produce and print the corresponding adhesive label 10 and a card 11;
• providing a printer 8 for printing said adhesive label 10;
• providing a printer 9 for printing said card 11;
• placing said adhesive label 10 onto said support 1 to be fixed to the luggage and sealing it with the transparent self-adhesive flap 2; the name and the surname of the luggage's owner will be printed onto said label 10 together with a numeral identification code, the freephone number and the website of the firm providing the service, which the user shall contact for recovering his luggage;
• handing over said card 11 together with the label to the luggage's owner, who will keep it as a receipt; the name and surname of the luggage's owner will be printed on said card, together with a bar code containing the personal data of the luggage's owner, comprising the issue date and the duration, the expiry date, the freephone number and the website of the firm providing the service;
• providing a central computer station in the seat of the firm providing the service, containing a database 12 for storing and working out the data transmitted from the single selling points for each purchase of a tag with issue of label and card; this central computer station runs the flow of calls and the web contacts with the owners of the tags concerning information about lost luggage, and with those who might have found it; furthermore, for running the flow of sms automatically sent to the owner informing him about the place where the luggage has been found and where it can be taken, when the luggage is lost in an airport, while for all other places where the luggage may have been lost, i.e. a railway station, a port, a car or bus station, a hotel etc., the firm providing the service will arrange for the recovering of the lost luggage and directly handing it over to the address of the luggage's owner.

[0018] The method of use of said tag is as follows.

[0019] The tag's purchaser gives his personal data to the operator of the selling point who stores them in personal computer 7 and prints ad adhesive label 10 and a card 11.

[0020] The address and the telephone number will not be printed either on the adhesive label or on the card, but will be saved in the database 12 of the firm providing the service, for the privacy safeguard of the user.

[0021] The card 11 may be renewable; at its expiry it will be given back and replaced with a new one, with updated informations.

[0022] The user will keep the card for any complaints.

[0023] The owner of the tag who has lost his luggage - or whose luggage has been lost - gets into contact with the central computer station of the firm providing the service, and sends an information A by freephone number or through the website; the central station automatically asks for information B, about where the luggage has been lost, according to two alternative options: in the airport or in any other places.

[0024] In case of loss in an airport station, if the airport staff find a lost luggage or a not recovered, one they will send a communication C to the freephone number or to the website of the firm providing the service, following the instructions of the same and using the numeral code printed on said label 8; when the software of the central computer station that runs the database 12 of the firm receives said communication and finds out the place where the luggage lost or not recovered has been found, it also registers the telephone number of the calling phone and its location, automatically sends an sms or an e-mail D to the luggage's owner, informing him about the place where the luggage has been found and the telephone number of the place where his luggage is kept. Through "Lost & Found", the office for lost luggage present in every airport, where it is supposed that the luggage's owner has file a report about the loss, the owner will be able to recover his luggage or wait for said office to send said luggage to an address E of the user.

[0025] In case of loss in all other places, like railway station, port, car or bus stations, hotels etc, every person in charge who finds a lost or not recovered luggage will send a communication C to the freephone number or to the website of the firm providing the service, following the instructions of the same and using the numeral code printed on said tag.

[0026] Once the software running the database 12 of the firm has received the communication and found out the place where the lost or not recovered luggage has been found, and once it has registered the phone number of the place from which the call has come, it will automatically send an sms or an e-mail D to the owner informing him about the place where the luggage has been found and the telephone number of the place where it is kept. Once the place is found where the lost luggage is kept, the firm providing the service will recover the same and sent it to the address E of the luggage's owner by the firm's couriers or by couriers in agreement with the firm.

Claims

1. Luggage tag for inserting and protecting personal identifying data, characterized in that it comprises:

- a support (1) for housing a label (10) containing the personal data of the luggage's owner;

- a self-adhesive and foldable flap (2) made out of transparent plastic, for the protection of the label;

- an anti-adhesive extractable film (3) provided with a gripping tongue (4) for the extraction of the same as well as the gluing of the transparent flap (2) to the support (1);

- a toothed band (5) provided with a one-way closing buckle (6) for making the tag un-removable from the luggage,

wherein said support and said band are one single body.

2. Luggage tag according to claim 1, characterized in that said single body is made out of a single-block plastic material obtained by means of die casting.

3. Luggage tag according to claim 1, characterized in that said label (10) is self-adhesive.

4. Luggage tag according to claim 1, characterized in that said flap (2) is fixed to said support (1) by one of its sides near said band (5) and remains free on its other sides.

5. Luggage tag according to claim 1, characterized in that said gripping tongue (4) is fixed to said film (3) towards the side of the flap (2) nearby said band (5).

6. A method of use of said tag, characterized in that it comprises the following phases:

- providing personal computer positions (7) arranged in the selling points of the tags, allowing to store the personal data of the buyer;

- providing a printer (8) for printing said adhesive label (10) onto which the name and the surname of the luggage's owner are printed, as well as a numeral identification code, a freephone number and the website of the firm providing the service, to which the user may turn for recovering the luggage;

- providing a printer (9) for printing said card (11) onto which name and surname of the luggage's owner will be printed, together with a bar code containing the personal data of the luggage's owner comprising the issue date and the duration as well as the expiry date, the freephone number and the website of the firm providing the service;

- placing said adhesive label (10) onto said support (1) to be fixed to the luggage and sealing it with the transparent self-adhesive flap (2);

- handing over said card (11) together with said label (10) to the luggage's owner, who will keep it as a receipt;

- providing a central computer station in the seat of the firm providing the service, containing a database (12) for storing and working out the data transmitted from the single selling points for each purchase of a tag with issue of label and card;

wherein said central computer station runs the flow of calls and the web contacts (A, B) with the owners of the tags concerning information about lost luggage, and with those who might have found the lost luggage (C); furthermore, for running the flow (D) of sms automatically sent to the owner informing him about the place where the luggage has been found and where it can be taken, when the luggage is lost in an airport; and for allowing the firm providing the service to arrange for the recovering of the lost luggage and directly handing it over to the address (E) of the luggage's owner, should the luggage have been lost in any other places.

7. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the address and the phone number of the purchaser will not be printed either on the adhesive label or on the card, but will be saved in the database (12) of the firm providing the service.

8. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that said card (11) has an expiry date and is renewable.

Drawing