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For the past two decades, brand owners, consumer product goods companies (CPGs), retailers, and converters (security printers converting commercially acceptable documents, labels, packages, and cards into security end products) have been proactive in using the latest improvements in security technologies and manufacturing protocols to mollify counterfeits or knockoffs.
These time-tested security converting technologies continue to be the mainstay for manufacturing security labels and packages in the security printing community and consist of, but are not limited to, such industry hallmarks as guilloches, pantographs, Scrambled Indicia(TM), holograms, RFIDs, and many other optical variable devices (OVDs). We have seen more applications from the plethora of the newest digital technologies available to the converting industry. It is now common practice, and in many cases government-issued mandates, for certain security packages and labels to include such devices as 2-D bar codes, data blocks, mass serialization, functional imaging (forensic marks associated with printing imperfections), and invisible forensic barcodes, etc. Not only do the brand owners - CPGs, retailers, and converters - have access to these new digital technologies, so do the professional counterfeiters, fraudsters, terrorists, and even the nuisance counterfeiters (people with a computer, image scanner, and high-resolution digital printer).
There has been a cry from the brand owners, CGPs, and retailers to provide consumer product protection on labels and packages and also to protect the product throughout its life cycle. This product protection starts with and will always remain with us. It is most often the first line of defense the consumer has at the point of purchase against receiving unwanted counterfeit or knockoff goods. However, when it comes to human welfare, one must consider fraudulent damages with repercussions greater than financial losses and a willingness to face a far greater task to protect the human health and lives of the consumers. Thus, when considering the threats posed by terrorists and unscrupulous criminals, the brand owners need to be able to track, trace, and authenticate the consumer product goods themselves throughout the manufacturing and distribution chain.
The Brand Protection Conference
In February, at the Third Annual Brand Protection Conference (BPC) (www.bpc-security.com) held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Smiths Detection introduced a new technology to the brand protection community for authentication, identification, tracing, and tracking of consumer food products...