Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading, own- brand UK retailer, has teamed up with Polytag, a recycling technology company, to enable M&S to trace what happens to its drinks bottles, cartons and other plastic packaging.

Today, we are all faced with better quality fakes, accessible through a flexible and ‘self-healing’ network of online sellers, with prices no different from your average flash sale, and carrying QR codes linked to the original websites of original brands – regardless of whether that brand uses QR codes or not. All of these factors combine to subtly persuade consumers of the originality of a product.

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.

The article explores 'pay-as-you-throw' waste tax, a new Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) charging scheme and the authentication possibilities supporting the recyclability efforts. Under the scheme, Hong Kong residents must buy designated rubbish bags to dispose of their domestic, commercial and industrial waste.

In 2023, security solution providers continued developing optical features and solutions, often combined with covert security, tamper-evidence, unique identifiers, and associated data management systems. This re-confirmed the position and importance of overt security features. At the same time, suppliers embraced physical/digital ('phygital') solutions that drew them into the realm of near-field communication (NFC), blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

During a recent webinar hosted by De La Rue on the subject of what motivates the adoption of a brand protection solution, Bea Morrison, Director of Marketing of the distinguished British beauty brand Mason Pearson spoke about her company’s decision to implement a comprehensive solution against parallel trade.

In August, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a one-year delay in enforcing the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) electronic tracking rules until November 2024, in order to provide a 12-month stabilisation period to aid compliance.