Counterfeit and substandard medicines have existed for as long as medicines have existed. The OECD estimates the global trade in illicit pharmaceuticals to be worth at least $4.4 billion annually.

We all know what a challenge it is to get consumers to authenticate anything. With this in mind, Securikett has developed an anti-cloning security seal that brings the entertainment factor to product authentication.

Tausa-Pelcco, a Mexican company producing security documents and vehicle, road, and urban identification plates, has purchased an HP Indigo 6K Secure Press, the first in Latin America.

A team of scientists, from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Hong Kong have developed an optical metasurface to create colour-selective 3D polarisation structures.

While near-field communication (NFC) has become the dominant technology for contactless payments, it has taken a backseat to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in terms of general adoption, with most people not even aware that their smartphones can have NFC built into them.

Like all progressive companies operating in the authentication and brand protection sectors, OpSec Security is committed to sustainability in its processes and products – as its new product line OpSec® Eco demonstrates.

In 2019, The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) launched a new anti-counterfeiting forum designed to encourage the development of cutting-edge technological solutions, including blockchain, to combat counterfeiting.

Communications and security provider Toppan and Japan’s NICT have now announced the launch of PQC CARD®, which they claim is the world’s first smart card equipped with post-quantum cryptography.

To accompany our feature this month on recent trends in near-field communication (NFC), we thought we’d take a snapshot of new authentication and identification programmes that are opting for NFC tags.

The ability to link a physical object such as a label, stamp or direct mark into the digital space through devices such as a smartphone is a persuasive and growing field.

The dates have been announced for next year’s Optical & Digital Document Security conference (ODDS), which takes place 17-19 April 2023 in Prague.

Ennoventure Inc has recently received an award for the most secure anti-counterfeit technology 2022 at the EMEA Security Conference and Exhibition, held in Saudi Arabia.

Swiss-based SICPA and New-Mexico nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

Dutch security print company Royal Joh Enschedé is teaming up with PROxID and Concordium blockchain to connect the world between security print products, NFTs and the metaverse.

The Romanian wine sector has started using an authentication technology developed by Eluceda to authenticate the provenance of its regional wines and protect drinkers from potential counterfeits.

A growing theme within the pages of Authentication & Brand News™ is the trend for technology providers of brand protection and authentication services to expand the usefulness of their offerings to include traceability of raw and recycled materials.

Austria and US based mobile authentication technology company Authentic Vision has announced the US market release of its Meta Anchor™ technology that, it claims, secures the link between physical products and digital value, services and experiences.

Spectroscopy, the branch of science that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra resulting from the interaction between radiation and the sample, has found many uses in differentiating between real and fake banknotes, secure documents and pharmaceuticals.

Giesecke+Devrient is probably better known for producing banknote paper and printing banknotes than it is for protecting brands. Having explored the brand protection market in the past, the company is now returning to protecting brands with its new SIGN® technology.

The relaunch of Authentication & Brand News™ in January of this year came, to a large extent, as a response to a set of market trends triggered by the effects of COVID-19 which have been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine and widespread inflation.