In April, StockX, the online reseller (primarily of sneakers), released its first ‘Brand Protection & Customer Trust Report’, offering a view into its anticounterfeiting and fraud prevention activities in 2023.

Gilead Science’s comprehensive measures to ensure medicine safety, from tablet design to vials and packaging.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has unveiled its latest targeted awareness campaign, designed to help tackle consumer demand for counterfeit goods.

In a blow to India's pharmaceutical export ambitions, implementation of the country’s planned track and trace (T&T) system has hit another roadblock, with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) announcing a one-year extension that pushes the deadline to February 2025. This delay follows a previous setback in August 2023.

From 8-10 April, Portugal's vibrant city of Lisbon played host to the 2024 Optical & Digital Security™ (ODDS) conference, providing a collaborative environment for the ID, currency, and secure document technical community to convene, exchange ideas, and unveil new security technologies.

Recent developments in the authentication industry, including: a new authentication contract for De La Rue, Royal Canadian Mint tracks the integrity of gold, and Certified Collectibles Group acquires a leading autograph authentication company.

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

The UK’s Royal Mail is investigating a recent case of mass counterfeiting of its new barcoded stamps.

Products are already starting to appear in this sector. For example, Authentication & Brand News, March 2024, contained an article on sustainable tamper-evident closure seals.

This article explores recent developments around holography technology, from combining origination processes and using AI for hologram detection to developing novel methods for controlling light polarisation.

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.

In the digital age, the security of electronic devices is paramount, not only to safeguard sensitive data but also to ensure the integrity of the hardware itself.

Crane NXT, whose subsidiaries include Crane Currency, Crane Authentication and Crane Payment Innovations, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Investcorp Technology Partners to acquire the optical technologies and brand protection specialist OpSec Security for $270 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments.

According to estimates, 30 to 40% of all African qualifications are falsified and/or fake. The article explores recent regional developments, combating fraudulent degrees and certificates.

While they say no to barcodes, Georgia voters could see a watermark on their ballot beginning in November, a move Republican supporters said would assure citizens that their ballots are authentic.

One of the fundamental security features used in manufacturing lottery ticket paper is advanced printing techniques such as watermarking. Further, lottery tickets often incorporate tamper-evident features, which include special adhesives designed to reveal any attempts at ticket tampering or alteration.

The Third Patent Plate is a technological solution that combines physical and digital security measures on a self-adhesive label, applied to the inside of a vehicle’s windshield.

As sustainability becomes an ever-present item on board meeting agendas, we notice the emergence of many new eco-friendly security solution developments, including sustainable closure seals that provide tamper evidence.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has unveiled its latest targeted awareness campaign, designed to help tackle consumer demand for counterfeit goods.

Interview between Authentication & Brand News and Judy Moon, Digimarc, Vice President

Traceability solution provider Aware claimed to have achieved the ‘world’s first’ fully infield-traceable recycled polyester.

The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) is strengthening its presence in China to boost growth and promote the technology’s benefits to brand owners, government authorities and sector suppliers.

Following the expansion of the secure registry of holographic images and its relaunch as the Security Image Register (SIR) last month, the IHMA has announced it will be holding a webinar focusing on the SIR and its benefits for suppliers and their customers on 17 April.

Meta Materials, working on advanced materials and nanotechnology, now releases its new product – NANO™ protect. With this, META has enhanced its authentication portfolio – NANO™ protect and LiveOptik® for brand protection and LumaChrome and QUANTUM™ Stripe for banknotes.

Continuing our series of articles on the strategic perspectives of leading brands in their fight against fakes, this month we turn our attention to Novartis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and the fourth largest in terms of revenue in 2022.

The system, proposed in 2011 and aimed at combating counterfeit drugs and improving transparency in drug exports and pharmaceutical supply chain, has been meeting repeated challenges stemming from difficulties within the industry and representation from the industry leaders. Technical obstacles and concerns regarding system readiness have contributed to this hurdle.

While counterfeiting is not a new problem, many sports Brands are switching to innovations such as DNA taggants, NFC, blockchain and NFT applications.

A recent EU Intellectual Property Office study has found that sales of legitimate clothing and footwear, cosmetics and toys suffer annual losses of €12 billion, €3 billion and €1 billion, respectively. Across these sectors, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Austria incur the biggest losses, with nearly €8 billion in reduced sales of genuine goods.

African governments are fighting the fake medicine scourge using technological advancements, track and trace systems, joint investigations, and strategic collaborations.

The European Pallet Association (EPAL) UK & Ireland, the umbrella association of licensed producers and repairers of EPAL load carriers, has launched Euro QR code pallets to boost supply chain visibility, improve efficiency, and optimise stock management.

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.

A new report based on survey findings among Council of Europe member states has confirmed the existence of falsified medical devices in the EU.

2024 promises to be an exciting year for the authentication industry, as seven of the world's ten biggest countries will be voting in national elections.

Continuing our series of articles on the strategic perspectives of leading brands in their fight against fakes, this month we turn our attention to Novartis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and the fourth largest in terms of revenue in 2022.

The programme for the third Optical and Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference is now available.

In the world of wine retailing, where the origin of a grape can massively impact the value of the finished bottle, the temptation to pass off one provenance of grape in favour of another is overwhelming.

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).

The SIR is an expanded and rebranded 2.0 version of HIR and reflects the changing realities of the global security printing industry. As holograms are increasingly incorporated with other optically variable devices (OVDs) to provide integrated, added value and advanced anti-counterfeiting solutions, the new SIR will include all optical security technologies falling within the general term of OVD.

A brief review covering innovation and technologies showcased at the 2023 High Security Printing™ (HSP) Asia conference which took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 4-6 December.

Bangladesh is known for having one of the fastest growing populations, but probably not so well-known is the fact that it is also one of the largest exporters of prawns (shrimp) in the world.