Patent 7097899 was granted and assigned to Agfa-Gevaert on August, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An information carrier comprising a support and a receiving layer is disclosed, together with the method of preparation. The information carrier further comprises (optionally personalized) information applied, preferably by ink jet printing, on the receiver layer, and a new type of watermark, obtained by applying pattern-wise a curable varnish and curing it, and by curing an overall applied curable lacquer. One of the varnish and the lacquer have the ability upon penetration into the receiving layer of changing its transparency, thus creating a transparent watermark on an opaque background, or creating a opaque watermark on an transparent background. The finished information carrier is preferably cut in a set of multiple identification (ID) cards.