The Solutions Bridge

“Counterfeit Colgate Toothpaste Found” is the headline for a June 14 U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release warning that toothpaste with packaging resembling a Colgate product found its way into dollar-type discount stores in four states in the United States. Consumers were lucky this time around —packages were readily identifiable as fake so they could discontinue use or dispose of the product immediately. The counterfeit labels included several misspellings, and stated that the product had been manufactured in South Africa—a location Colgate does not use for manufacturing toothpaste.

This is only one example of how a brand’s identity was stolen and reproduced to allow contaminated product to reach the store shelves. There are countless more, particularly in the pharmaceutical realm.

Counterfeiting, diverting, tampering, and stealing are nothing new. However, they present an opportunity for packaging converters to offer solutions that protect the brands they supply from counterfeiting, diverting, or theft. At the June 20 Gallus VIP Technology Seminar (see p. 11), Bud Gray, of the Brand Protection Alliance (BPA), stated that brand security is an opportunity for package printers to be a bridge between technology providers and brand owners. In this way, package printers can help shield brand owners from loss of revenue, damage to the brands’ reputations, erosion of their integrity, potential liabilities, and enforcement and litigation costs.

Covert and overt

Covert brand security, according to Roland Krapp, vice president of sheetfed product management, Heidelberg USA, covers, in general terms, all technological features that are unseen to the naked human eye and are made visible only by use of special equipment, such as decoders, verifiers, and similar equipment. Overt technologies, he explains, are features designed to be clearly visible so that printers easily can look for these features to determine whether packaging is fake. Examples are holographic foil or a hologram. “Covert technologies, which are unseen, must be identified with special equipment in order to identify and prove authenticity of the packaging,” says Krapp. “The major advantage of covert features is that no one actually knows what to look for on the package without the assistance of special detectors, thus they are less prone to be counterfeited.”

Jack Walsh, marketing manager, brand protection solutions for Videojet Technologies, Inc., defines covert brand security as the concept of protecting a brand against damaging events like counterfeiting, diversion, and product terrorism by using marking/coding methods that are unseen to the consumer and other parties. “Examples of covert marking/coding techniques on packaging include invisible marks, inks with taggants, and nano marks,” he says. “Another example is hidden marks, or visible marks that are located inside a package, which means the package must be opened to view them.”

“When you talk of covert security, it relates to technologies that are hard to recognize by the naked eye and are extremely difficult to reproduce,” says Jacquie Wells, marketing and communications, Kurz Transfer Products, L.P. “These technologies often include nanotext and hidden images.”

Other advantages of covert brand protection include not interfering with the package graphics, and their authentication requires specific personnel to be armed with readers/verifiers tuned and calibrated to the actual technology, according to Lynn Crutchfield, president, Acucote, Inc. However, he notes that using covert technologies alone does not offer a high level of security. “Some of the disadvantages of using covert features alone in a brand security program are that they are not visible to the consumer and that the readers typically can only detect specific technologies. At best, experience tells us that only using covert technologies in a brand security program offers the brand owner a moderate level of security.”

Jim Reiman, director of sales, Sun Chemical Security adds, “The holy grail is to find something overt and secure. Those are almost mutually exclusive terms because anything a counterfeiter can see, he may not be able to hit it exactly, but he can get close enough to fool, for example, consumers.” The idea, he adds, “is to try to make it difficult enough for a counterfeiter or diverter that he wants to go someplace else.”

What’s it take?

Crutchfield states, “The security market, as a whole, is not for the faint of heart. It is one of the most challenging and potentially complex markets available to package printers today. Participation equates to investment of time and other organizational resources.”

For covert brand protection, Walsh says, “A package printer’s niche, whether it is films, paperboard, folding cartons, or labels, will determine what covert printing techniques it should employ. The best rule of thumb is to contact a supplier that offers many technologies, each with covert methods of marking, to ascertain the solution that’s best for the substrate being marked along with other security considerations.”

Jonathan Petersohn, Water Ink Technologies, says, “[package printers] have to become knowledgeable, to the extent possible, about brand protection technologies in general, and covert security technologies specifically. Printers should be aware that depending upon the ‘sophistication’ of a covert security technology to be used at the printer’s location, an investment may need to be made in process changes at the printer’s plant.” He explains that these changes focus on handling the security products and all the product printed on the press, including the waste.

Gray adds that it takes commitment, the right equipment, and the right resources, and Krapp concurs. “To take advantage of covert technologies, package printers need a good partner, an easy-to-use portal to download Concealed Icon Technology (CIT) files, and the right decoder (plastic verifier) in the hands of the right people,” he says.

Various technologies

Walsh states, “printing or imaging infrared invisible codes using an inkjet printer is a relatively new advancement that concerns Videojet,” he adds. “The inkjet method enables the brand to print digital information covertly versus simply tagging the product for authentication purposes.”

According to Krapp, Heidelberg is in the process of developing various other covert-patented proprietary solutions like embossed hidden images, which will have higher protection levels.

That said, Heidelberg has decided to focus on CIT as the best first step to allow printers to use covert technologies at reasonable prices for brand owners. “Heidelberg’s CIT solution does not require any special electronic or lab equipment to authenticate, but uses a handheld plastic verifier,” he says. The verifier can be used unobtrusively at field level without arousing any suspicion.

Emerging applications

It is important to remember that this is an emerging market, and new applications/solutions are being discovered all the time.

“Some of the covert applications and techniques on the market today include DNA solutions, or plastic-material injecting processes onto substrates or inks, which are identifiable once the product has been collected from the market and brought to a lab facility for authentication by special scanners or other microscopic equipment,” says Krapp.

“Brand protection is a market segment in its early stages, and relatively speaking, everything is essentially a new application because there wasn’t as big a demand for covert marking technologies even five years ago,” says Walsh. “A newer application for covert marking is electronics packaging, [such as] packaging for DVDs, MP3 players, and hard drives, in part because those products have recently entered the marketplace.”

Brand protection outlook

Krapp says, “this is a growing market and will remain a necessity even if the countries in which brand piracy primarily happens take more serious actions against counterfeiters.” According to Gray, this means that package printers have an opportunity to revive their status as solutions providers.

“Covert brand security, and brand protection in general, is becoming a very hot topic, particularly with the recent reports of brand counterfeiting that have appeared in the news,” says Petersohn. “When the counterfeiting of health and beauty products begins to threaten the health of people—in addition to the economic health of brand owners—you can see why there is renewed focus on covert and overt security features for packaging.”

Also important to remember is that while this article has focused on covert brand protection techniques, covert techniques are only part of the overall brand protection package. “The covert mark itself is only half of the equation,” says Walsh. “The other half is the actual image being printed. Is the invisible message a logo, a word, or a serialized pseudo-random number? These considerations can greatly impact the level of security a brand achieves.” He uses the example of a manufacturer creating a unique mark on every package or item that can be used to track and trace the product and provide additional supply chain visibility.

Crutchfield still cautions that much needs to be done on the package printers’ parts when entering the market.

“The package printer must learn how to securely handle information, product, and often times, how to secure its own physical plants and supply chain,” he says. “The printer must adapt to his role as the bridge between the technology provider and the brand owner. This means that [he] will have to give up certain controls that have been customary in [his] business. Frankly, this is very hard for most package printers to do and frequently serves as a serious obstacle for most companies.” pP

Kodak Helps Napa Valley Wineries Fight Wine Fraud

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Eager to ­address the growing threat posed by producers of imitation wines, several Napa Valley wineries have moved to employ a new high-tech anticounterfeiting technology from Kodak to protect their brands and customers.

According to industry experts, counterfeit wine could affect as much as 5 percent of wines sold in secondary markets.

The Kodak anticounterfeiting technology uses invisible markers that can be added to printing inks, paper, and other packaging elements, and are detectable only with proprietary handheld readers. The readers are leased to customers and delivered in ­tamperproof packaging. The ­system prevents counterfeiters from duplicating product packaging. For winemakers with unique bottling methods, the Kodak solution can be adapted to fit their product specifications.

Kodak Security Solutions include security features that can be incorporated into a wide range of products, materials, and documents to deliver protection against counterfeiting and diversion. Kodak is already working with other industries affected by counterfeiting, including pharmaceuticals, apparel, cosmetics, and identification documents.

For more information, visit www.kodak.com/go/security.