| Date |
Event |
Comments and additional Information |
| 12/18/1934 | Patent 1985035 Earliest Patent of a Barcode Filed by John Kermode, Douglas Young, Harry Sparks, Westinghouse | Not actually a product ID but apparently a patent for a barcode to simplify a business process. top |
| 1932 | Wallace Flint Thesis proposes automating checkout | The proposed system used catalogs with punched cards to give a system that delivered the product to the checkout. top |
| 1949 | Woodland/Silver Patent Filing "Classifying Apparatus & Method" Patent 2612994 |
A circular barcode later to be known as a bullseye and issued in 1952. top |
| 1952 | First Actual Bullseye Barcode Scanner Woodland in Back Room of a Colonial Store in Atlanta |
top |
| 1961 | Color Bar Codes introduced on Railroad Cars |
First used on Gravel Cars by
Boston and Maine Railroad. top |
| March 28-30,1966 | Grocery Industry Meeting (NAFC Urging automation) in Miami, FL | Management Clinic on Physical Research. top |
| 1967 | Association of American Railroads Picks Color Bar Codes to
identify Railroad Cars |
This was not really a product
ID. These bar codes identified cars that carried product. top |
| October 16, 1967 | Sylvania and RCA meet to discuss Supermarket Technology Sharing | top |
| February 23-26 1969 | NAFC meeting Management Clinic on Physical Research | Presentations on Checkout
alternatives including Bob Sloat regarding Kroger's study of Scan and
Bag. top |
| September 1969 | Administrative Systems committee of GMA meets at Carousel Inn Cincinnati to study initiating Product IDs | Participants settled on 11 digit
code recomendation with some descent, top |
| 1969 | Computer Identics installs barcode scanning system in Flint, MI Buick assembly line | top |
| 8/25/1970 | U.P.C. Ad Hoc Committee Established at the OHare Inn in Chicago | Officers elected, McKinsey
selected as Consultant, decision made to formally move ahead. top |
| 7/09/1970 | Kimball Ticket System Patent filed (granted 5/23/72) | top |
| 3/09/1971 | U.P.C. Code Management committee formed | top |
| 3/31/1971 | U.P.C. Symbol Selection Committee Formed | top |
| 6/1/1971 | First Meeting of Symbol Selection Commitee | Dealt with how to structure the Committee's work. Haberman stated the job was not to worry about financing (leave that to Ad Hoc) but to recommend if and what symbol should be selected. top |
| 6/7/1971 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets with Jewel in Chicago | Jewels ideas on productivity presented. top |
| 6/10/1971 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets with RCA in Marlborough MA | top |
| 7/15/1971 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets at McKinsey in New York, NY | top |
| 8/25/1971 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets at McKinsey in New York, NY | Reviews information on possible equipment providers.top |
| 10/5/1971 | Symbol Selection Committee meets with NCR in Dayton, OH | top |
| 10/20/1971 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets at McKinsey in New York, NY | Review progress with equipment companies and decision to have two types of committee members. Type One are voting and include four grocery manufacturers and four grocery retailers. Type Two are non-voting and include testing companies. Canada invited to contribute (Allen Clark GMA Canada)top |
| 11/10/1971 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in New York, NY | Status of equipment company efforts discussed. Modified symbol evaluation process to accept non store test data. Symbol guideline were discussed.top |
| 11/30/1971 | Symbol Selection Committee meets about Finances and code start-up | Decision to use the IBM suggested Pictorial Information Dissector and Analyzer (PIDAS) tool to determine print quality in the industrytop |
| 4Q 1971 |
Initiate Printing quality work
with Graphic Arts Technical Foundation |
Define and measure the quality
of print via available technologies top |
| 4Q 1971 |
Initiate Symbol Performance
analysis with Battelle in Columbus |
Define and measure how the
proposed symbols perform on real checkstands with grocery checkout
clerks top |
| 1/14/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets with Zellweger and Charagon | Zellweger and Charagon presentations. Litton test with A&P proposed with both price scan and price look-up. top |
| 2/21/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meeting | Decided PIDAS would provide a fact base for writing the symbol specifications. Also decided to utilize the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (Pittsburg) to provide input and measurements on print quality. Symbol location becoming a concern. top |
| 3/20/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meeting | Federal Trade Commission contacted for information exchange. Distribution Number Bank is up, running and funded. "Velocity" coding offered by Jewel (?) to increase manual input productivity. MIT contacted and agrees to provide input on current and future technologies. Types of symbols offered are: dot matrix (Jewel), bullseye (RCA), half moon (Zellweger), linear bar code (bi-directional by Litton, Anker, IBM not formally proposed at this time and Omnidirectional by Pitney), bullseye series (Hugen Register), Human readable split bar code (Scanner Inc), Sunburst (Characon and Brad Torre), and others not offered including OCR, MICR, magnetic, voice recognition, mechanical (e.g. holes), color bars, holography and florescent inks. Symbol location a major issue. top |
| 1Q 1972 |
Larry Russell initates the Non
Parametric Model |
Created to compare symbol
proposal technology on comprehensive detailed basis top |
| 5/25/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meeting at McKinsey in New York, NY | Equipment manufacturers reports including: IBM, RCA, Litton, Pitney Bowes, Scanner Inc, Resources for Lawyers, Charagon, Nuclear Data, Dymo, Olivetti, Hugen, and Anker. top |
| 7/3/1972 | Kroger Store Opens A Test of Scanning Bullseye with RCA |
The store was located in the Kenwood shopping center in Cincinnati, OH, top |
| 6/22/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets with Battelle in Columbus, OH | top |
| 8/9/1972 | Symbol Selection Commitee meets at RCA Test Store | Held in Cincinnati Ohio to visit the Kroger test store (RCA . bulls eye). Status of lab test program: Litton and RCA are in, Singer and Pitney look good to join, probable are Zellweger, Scanner Inc and IBM, NCR is undecided, and Dymo, Ankor, and Charagon will not. top |
| 10/5/1972 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in New York |
Discussed how to encourage IBM to be a tester. Review of store test programs. Review of patent policy. Committee would like symbol to be in the public domain. Continued work on decision framework. top |
| 11/14/1972 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in New York |
Decision framework includes store level savings, source symbol marking cost and decision to recommend yes or no symbol decision. Reviewed Nation Drug Code needs and how to handle film master producers. top |
| 12/4/1972 | Symbol Selection Committee meeting |
Report on IBM Rochester visit. Discussed how to handle the macro economic analysis and what to do if it were negative. Report on Battelle progress. top |
| 1/4-6/1973 | Symbol Selection Committee meeting in San Francisco, CA |
Review of Battelle test results and MIT comments. Decision on if a decision can be made on 3/30/72 and if there needs to be a variation on any of the proposed symbologies. Decision made to make the decision on 3/30/72 based on data that has been and will be received. Presentations by Dymo, IBM, RCA, Pitney-Bowes, Singer, Scanner Inc, and Litton. DNB reports current manufacturing members accout for 45 percent of the nation volume of groceries. top |
| 2/12/1973 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in New York |
Realization that because of interpretations decision will turn on judgmental factors rather than just hard data. Status of all proposers reviewed along with store test results. Charagon presented a new symbol. top |
| 3/4-6/1973 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in Los Angeles, CA |
Decided this meeting would emphasize recommending a symbol or not, recommendation on symbol location and reduce alternative choices. Received Battelle results. Jewel requested the project stop to review code structure. Received store testing and print quality reports. Printers worried about quality measures and that required tolerances could not be achieved. Decided not to require bottom marking. Symbol should be variable size. Decide symbol decision would be either IBM two field bar code, Litton semi-circle bullseye, Litton one field bar code or Singer two dimensional format. top |
| 3/29-30/1973 | Symbol Selection Committee meets at McKinsey in New York |
Late concern about laser safety. Would like to not have safety warnings in the stores. Final test results and recommendation from MIT that OCR-B be added to the symbol specification (accepted). Macro economic costs seem acceptable but an absolute requirement for bottom marking would be prohibitive. Final choice came down to RCA/Litton (full and semicircle) and IBM (linear bar code). Haberman asked for a report on how confident each member could be on their vote which resulted in strong confidence from all. Then reached a unanimous decision on the IBM symbol as modified by the committee. Voting were Eric Waldbaum (Greenbelt Consumer Services), Steve Linn (General Foods), Bob Tripp (Winn Dixie), Barry Franz (Procter & Gamble), Bill Galt (Del Monte), John Hayes (Heinz), Fritz Biemeier (Red Owl Stores) and Alan Haberman (First National Stores). OCR/B accepted as part of the symbol. top |
| 4/3/1973 | U.P.C. Symbol Selection Committee presents its Recomendations to Ad Hoc Committee | "IBM/Committee Final Proposal" accepted after final 30 minute presentations made by Litton/Zellweger, NCR, RCA, Pitney-Bowes-Alpex, and Singer. Ad Hoc Committee accepts the Symbol Selection Committeerecomentation. The Symbol Selection Committee was disbanded at the close of the meeting.top |
| May 1973 | Initial Symbol Definition Documents released | top |
| May 1973 |
Uniform
Product Code Council Assumes Leadership |
The Ad Hoc
Committee turns over leadership to the Uniform Product Code Council
(UGPCC) top |
| 5/17/1973 | Establishment of Symbol Technical Advisory Committees to resolve symbol issues | Each
Subcommittee to be formed by 8/1/73 and to initially meet by 9/15/73 top |
| 6/23/1973 | RCA annouces U.P.C. Scanning POS System | top |
| August 1973 | RCA sells POS System to Sperry Univac | top |
| 9/29/1973 | Univac closes Kroger test store | Closure of bullseye scanning store in Cincinnati's Kenwood Shopping Center. top |
| 10/11/1973 | IBM announces the initial scanning Supermarket System, IBM3660 | The announcement was made at the
National Association of Food Chains Executive Session in Washington D.C. with a
demonstration for attendees and their wives. top |
| January 1974 | Ad Hoc Committee forms a Coupon Committee chaired by Don Lloyd | top |
| February 1974 | Sperry Univac/RCA installs a U.P.C. Scanning Checkstand at Finast in Framingham, MA. | Finast internal house publication relating the Framingham store scanning lane installation. top |
| 6/26/1974 | Wrigley Gum Scanned using a NCR system at Marsh Supermarkets | top |
| July 1974 | IBM Starts U.P.C. scanning at Stienbergs Dorval (Montreal) Canada | top |
| July 1974 | IBM starts scanning at SGC Pathmark, South Plainfield, NJ | top |
| 1974 | Random Weight code format decided | top |
| 1976 | EAN, European Article Number, is adopted | top |
| June 1976 | Walter Kaslow obtains Patent 3,959,624 covering the use of a coupon, U.P.C. Symbol and the scanning action. | This patent effectively claimed
infringement for every scan of a U.P.C. symbol on a coupon. It was
declared invalid in late 1983. top |
| 10/13/1977 | IBM documents achieved scanning benefits to FMI Scanning Conference | FMI adopts presentation as the
FMI's official position on store automation benefits. top |
| 1980 | EAN Authority and the International ISBN Agency create country called Bookland | The country was given prefixes
(EAN prefixes) 978 and 979. top |
| 1980 | UCC/GS1US issued the 10,000th prefix | top |
| 9/1/1981 | US Dept of Defense adopts LOGMARS, a Code 39 barcode. | LOGMARS was required for all
purchased products. top |
| March 1982 | First installation of IBM Story Systems product by an IBM Business Partner | ECS, Electronic Checkout Systems, in Atlanta installs first systems as a VAD (Value Added Distributor) initiating the Business Partners program, a major IBM Store Systems sales program.top |
| September 1982 | US Postal Service adopts POSTNET barcode to represent zipcodes | Within 13 months the Postal
Service had POSTNET operational in 100 major metropolitan areas. top |
| 1982 | Symbol Technologies introduces LS7000 hand held scanner | top |
| 1985 | Ilhan Bilgutay claims he invented a two bar, two space representation of a number, Patent# 3832686 | The UCC settled out of court
because pursuing it was even more expensive although Bilgutay changed
his mind almost immediately and attempted to re-open the settlement
until 1988. top |
| 1986 | IBM joint study with Carter Hawley Hale | Joint study with retailer Carter Hawley Hale defining benefits of using the UPC barcode in general merchandise retailing. top |
| June 1987 |
IBM establishes a Quick Response Systems project office |
topQuick Response was an initiative to make American Manufacturing more significant by shortening the response time for retailers to meet specific customer needs and thereby bring manufacturing back to the United States. |
| June 1988 |
Quick Response Services Inc. begins operations |
QRS' UPC Catalog service provided storage and distribution of vendors. UPC codes for retailers to access. Quick Response Services was a joint venture between Peter R Johnson & Associates and IBM.top |
| 1989 |
Lemelson attempts to take
control of the U.P.C. world-wide by filing patents on barcodes |
top |
| 1991 |
Bar Codes first appear on
Medications |
By 2001 only 2 - 3% of hospitals
use bar codes. top |
| 1992 |
UCC/GS1US issued the 100,000th
Barcode prefix |
top |
| 1994 |
International group meets to
establish Blood Bank Bar Code |
top |
| 1998 |
Smithsonian
Celebrates 25 years of the U.P.C. Bar Code |
top |
| December 2003 |
Class Action Settlement UCC vs Rob N I, Inc in Superior Court Spokane, WA |
The UCC tried to initiate an annual renewal fee for Prefix holders. Its policy had always restricted the use of the prefix to the company that originally purchased it. The renewal fee was successfully challenged in a Class Action Suit which effectively said that there had been no agreement or contract between UCC and the Prefix Owner since the Prefix Owner had never signed a document agreeing to UCC terms, i.e. no contract ever existed.
Then assigned Prefixes became the simple property of the Prefix owner. Its value and exclusivity had to be protected by the owner. This also meant the Prefix owner was free to sub-divide and resell individual UPC numbers as he would any asset. As a result the sales of Prefixes by the UCC was modified to make them contractural, require a renewal fee, and make it so they could not be resold. top |
| February 2004 |
US FDA requires that all
medications must have bar codes by April 2006 |
top |
| 10/12/2005 |
AABA mandates the implementation
of ISBT 128 bar code in accredited Blood Banks |
Must have written implementation
plan by 11/1/2006 and be implemented by 5/1/2008. top |
| 2006 |
UCC/GS1US issued the 300,000th
Barcode prefix |
top |
| January 13, 2011 |
Albert Heijn passes |
Albert Heijn was considered the founder of the EAN and founded the Dutch supermarket that bears his name. top |
| June 12, 2011 |
Alan Haberman passes |
Alan Haberman chaired the Symbol Selection Committee and was a member of the Ad Hoc committee that guided this industry project. top |
| December 9, 2012 |
N Joesph Woodland passes |
Joe contributed to many phases of the creation of the UPC from creating and patenting the first optical concept to guiding much of the IBM assistance to the industry. top |