As we move into 2025, this overview highlights trends and developments that caught the attention of Authentication & Brand News™ (ABN) in 2024 and that could continue to shape the industry.

Earlier this year, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was warning that deepfakes – ie. video, audio and image content that seem real but are actually manipulated with AI – had been used to try to influence election results

Following De La Rue’s announcement, a few months ago, that it was in discussions with several parties interested in acquiring one or both of its business divisions – Authentication and Currency – the company has now entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of its Authentication division to Crane NXT, for £300 million.

This article outlines K&B's evolving strategy, recent partnerships and core technologies, all contributing to what the company calls its ‘Authentication Solution Portfolio’ – a portfolio of non-invasive authentication solutions.

Marks & Spencer, a leading UK retailer, has teamed up with Polytag, a recycling technology company, to track the journey of its drinks bottles, cartons, and other plastic packaging. Meanwhile, India is grappling with the widespread counterfeiting of extended producer responsibility certificates by plastic waste recyclers.

By 2025, more than 100 million smartphone users in the US will use a QR code scanner on their mobile devices, compared to 70.6 million in 2020. But how can citizens be sure that what they are scanning is legitimate?

According to a new research report published in the journal Langmuir, scientists have successfully developed a new photopatterning technique that creates two light-reactive images in one material.

A new trend among counterfeiters is to target high-value drugs like HIV antivirals in both the developing and developed world. This problem was highlighted in 2020 and 2021, when Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Gilead warned that counterfeits of several HIV medications had been discovered circulating in the US.

The European Commission has adopted a recommendation to combat offline and online counterfeiting and enhance intellectual property rights enforcement.

Continuing our series on brand protection programmes implemented by some of the world’s biggest brand owners, this month we turn our attention to the Chinese technology company Xiaomi, one of the youngest companies on the Fortune Global 500 and among the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world.