| US 7,580,529 B2 | ||
| Method for verifying digital franking notes | ||
| Peter Fery, Zwingenberg (Germany); Juergen Helmus, Bonn (Germany); Gunther Meier, Reinheim (Germany); Dieter Stumm, Grossefehn (Germany); and Carsten Vullriede, Hodenhagen (Germany) | ||
| Assigned to Deutsche Post AG, Bonn (Germany) | ||
| Appl. No. 10/543,962 PCT Filed Jan. 21, 2004, PCT No. PCT/DE2004/000083 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Mar. 20, 2006, PCT Pub. No. WO2004/072911, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 26, 2004. |
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| Claims priority of application No. 103 05 730 (DE), filed on Feb. 12, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0190732 A1, Aug. 24, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04L 9/00 (2006.01); G07B 17/04 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 380—277 [705/405] | 12 Claims |
| 1. A method for verifying postage indicia generated in customer systems using a data key and applied onto mailpieces, each
postage indicium containing decrypted cryptographic information used for verifying the postage indicium, said method comprising:
generating the data key in a value transfer center and transmitting the data key to a central payment assurance system,
transmitting the data key from the central payment assurance system to local payment assurance systems and importing the data
key in the local payment assurance systems,
transmitting a result of the importing step from the local payment assurance systems to the central payment assurance system
and to the value transfer center,
after the data key has been successfully imported into essentially all local payment assurance systems, the value transfer
center issuing the data key to the customer systems for producing the postage indicia, and
verifying the postage indicia by decrypting the cryptographic information using the data key in the local payment assurance
systems.
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