White Paper
the Counterfeit Problem
Where Marking Works
There is only one common product which generally overcomes the limitations of anti-counterfeiting strategies. Banknotes (or Currency in general).
The reason they are an exception is that they differ in one vital respect from virtually all other tradeable items. Viz: we all have a vested interest in ensuring that the notes and coins we trade with are the real thing. So there are, effectively, several hundred people checking each bank note as it passes along its lifetime chain. And many of those people will know several of the key features which distinguish the real thing from the fake. In addition to which, Governments and the their laws tend to treat currency counterfeit far more seriously than commercial counterfeit.
A key concept in addressing the problem of counterfeit is that unless a similar level of vested interest and distributed expertise exists in the marketplace for the product you wish to protect, then no amount of marking technologies, overt or covert, are going to deter the counterfeiter completely. All you can do is make things a little more difficult for them.
