Printing of a position-coding pattern

A method for outputting an electronic document to a printer for printing the document, said document comprising a page description and a position-coding pattern allowing encoding of positions on the printed document, said method comprising:

• receiving a page description and a sublicense to a selected portion of the position-coding pattern, said sublicense comprising a definition of the selected portion of the position-coding pattern, an indication of an origin of the sublicense, and a data record allowing verification of integrity of the sublicense,
• examining the sublicense to determine whether printing of the document is to be allowed, said examining comprising:
• checking the indication of the origin of the sublicense to assure that the sublicense stems from a trusted actor, and
• checking the data record allowing verification of integrity to assure that the sublicense has not been tampered with, and
• if any of the checks fails, preventing the printing of the document.

A system for developing and printing an electronic document, said system comprising:

• a design unit, which is arranged to run a software program that is adapted to create a page description representing a layout of the document;
• a sublicensing unit, which is adapted to retrieve a license from a database, said license defining a position-coding pattern, which is capable of encoding positions on a product when printed, the sublicensing unit further being arranged to run a software program that is adapted to select at least a portion of the position-coding pattern in the retrieved license to be associated with the page description, forming a sublicense from said license, said sublicense comprising a definition of the selected at least portion of the position-coding pattern, an indication of an origin of the sublicense to enable assuring that the sublicense stems from a trusted actor, and a data record allowing verification of integrity of the sublicense to enable assuring that the sublicense has not been tampered with, and associating said sublicense with said page description;
• and
• a printing unit, which is arranged to receive the page description and the sublicense from the sublicensing unit, the printing unit further being arranged to run a software program that is adapted to read and examine the sublicense in order to ensure that the sublicense stems from a trusted actor and has not been tampered with.