IN Groupe, global specialist in identities and digital services, has signed an agreement with UK-based Portals, supplier of security features and paper, for the sale of Portals’ security components business in Bollate, Italy.

Brand protection specialist OpSec Security has acquired Zacco, an intellectual property management and protection company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and has announced that it is going for a public listing later this year.

Authentix has announced that it has acquired Netherlands-based Royal Joh Enschedé, a leading specialty printing and security solutions provider, from investment firm Nimbus.

Metal packaging is used around the world to transport and display everything from coconut milk to alcoholic beverages. One US rigid packaging company is winning accolades for protecting brands from counterfeiting while at the same time reducing the resources it uses.

The Brandr Group (TBG) – a group licensing agency that helps US college athletes capitalise on name, image, and likeness (NIL) licensing opportunities on branded apparel – has launched a security and identity programme called Licensed Player Product.

Paris is widely regarded as one of the global centres of the branded beauty, luxury, premium drinks, and personal care markets. So, it makes sense that secure packaging producers Toppan, and its Düsseldorf-based subsidiary Toppan Europe, chose Paris Packaging Week (25-26 January) to showcase its range of brand authentication packaging products.

The counterfeiting of money has been going on ever since the invention of physical money around the 6th century BC. The main deterrent for counterfeiting in historical times was punishment – generally capital punishment, as it was considered a crime against the state. In our more enlightened times, technology is providing the deterrent. In this article, we take a look at four new developments to protect gold bars and commemorative coins from counterfeiting.

Nanotechnology has been a fertile breeding ground for authentication and brand protection devices – given that structures that can be controlled at the nanoscale (roughly the size of a few atoms or molecules) exhibit responses to light that are distinctive and near impossible to replicate. Now, a team of researchers and entrepreneurs is set to launch a new optical ink feature into the market.

Luminescence Sun Chemical Security (LSCS) is part of the Sun Chemical global security solutions business unit, specialising in inks, pigments and coatings-based authentication solutions. In January 2023, LSCS acquired InData System’s (InData) patented invisible barcode reading technology, which consists of a variety of dedicated readers that can verify and decode ‘invisible’ fluorescent codes.

In March 2022’s edition of Authentication & Brand News™, a technical feature looked at how digital watermark specialist Digimarc was working on invisible watermarks that could increase plastic recycling. The technology from Digimarc is amongst a basket of innovations that sit at the overlap between authentication and sustainability – in this case giving plastic packaging a ‘voice’.