PORT TOWNSEND — Intellicheck Mobilisa Inc. has been awarded the company’s 17th patent for technology aimed at checking the authenticity of identification presented at such businesses as restaurants, bars and casinos.
“As a technology company, protecting our intellectual property is key,” said company CEO Nelson Ludlow on Tuesday.
“This patent represents our latest ID-verification technology designed to enhance the security of businesses and their customers, making it easier for business owners who sell age-restricted products, such as alcohol or tobacco, to avoid unauthorized sales.”
“Nobody else can do what we are doing,” said Heather Flanagan, the Port Townsend-based company’s marketing director.
“And the patent protects our rights.”
The patent is the basis of a smartphone app called barZapp, a utility that can be used at restaurants and casinos to verify the age or identity of patrons.
The app is used through the phone’s camera, which takes a picture of the holograph and sends it to the company’s server, immediately revealing whether the document is authentic.
“People who are selling fake IDs from China can duplicate everything except the hologram,” Flanagan said.
The software can be downloaded from the Apple or Android app stores for $1.99, which limits the user to 10 scans a day, while the full unlimited service costs $9.95 a month.
The new patent builds on the company’s existing ID Check technology that reads, parses, compares and displays encoded data from the barcodes on government-issued IDs.
It provides the user with a readout that displays the age of the ID card bearer and verifies the card’s expiration date.
It also shows how the ID should appear, with images taken from a database that includes sample images of driver’s licenses from every U.S. state and Canadian province.
“By incorporating this extra layer of protection, we hope to keep business owners from facing prosecution due to illegal sales of restricted products,” Ludlow said.
Flanagan said the company does not keep the scanned data of valid IDs or those who are underage but does retain copies of any documents that are forged or invalid.
Intellicheck Mobilisa has offices in Port Townsend and New York.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.