Published: June 21, 2011

Anti-counterfeiting packaging

Counterfeiting is a huge business, threatening not only sales revenue, but also the health and safety of consumers who may end up with adulterated food or medicine, unsafe engine parts, or other dangerous fake goods. Liability for those counterfeit products, as well as the negative publicity that can befall a company whose brand has been compromised by piracy, can have devastating impacts on business.
In the United States, the Brand Protection Alliance asserts that counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy $200 to $250 billion per year. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development in Europe calculated that international trade alone in counterfeit goods represented an additional $200 billion in 2005; the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) estimates the total counterfeit economy at more than three times that amount. In fact, in the middle of the first decade of the new millenium, ICC figured the counterfeiting industry represented about 10% of world trade, equivalent to the 12th largest economy in the world.
Counterfeit products range from cheap bootleg videos to phony bottles of wine sold for thousands of dollars to fake aircraft parts.
Fortunately, label and packaging technology can help deter or thwart counterfeiters. Printing techniques, materials such as substrates and inks, and high-tech sensors can all play a role in protecting brand integrity.

OVERT AND COVERT


The first decision to make in an effort to protect a brand from counterfeiting is to determine whether the effort should be visible or invisible to the counterfeiter.
A highly visible, or overt, tactic can warn off potential counterfeiters, much as a flashing alarm light does in an expensive car. An adept thief could break into the vehicle and disable the alarm, but is more likely to consider saving the time and hassle by moving on to an unprotected vehicle.
Overt measures can also communicate to consumers. It may put them on guard against counterfeit products. It may reinforce a sales message that says, in essence, ‘‘this product is so desirable, people want to counterfeit it.’’ And it may also reassure customers that the product they are buying is well protected.
By contrast, covert measures tend to be secret and unobtrusive, generally revealed only through close observation or with special readers or detectors. The theory behind covert tactics is often that if counterfeiters do not know what the authentication features are, they are less likely to fake them.
Many anti-counterfeiting efforts rely on a combination of overt and covert methods. It’s like protecting your home with a good lock, a loud dog, and a burglar alarm.

TACTICS AND MATERIALS


The U.S. $20 bill introduced in 1998 illustrates the use of a variety of anti-counterfeiting features, all of which may be employed in the manufacture of labels and packaging. Rare paper, embedded fibers and strips, watermarks, sophisticated printing, special inks—each feature makes the bill difficult to reproduce and easy to authenticate.

Special Paper


The U.S. currency anti-counterfeiting effort begins with cotton/linen paper manufactured specifically for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing for the production of currency. A swipe with an iodine pen is an easy authentication measure: Unlike wood-based paper, which contain starches that turn black in the presence of iodine, the linen/cotton blend will not show a dark line where the pen left its mark.
In addition to its unique composition, the banknote paper includes embedded red and blue fibers, so average paper stocks cannot be substituted for the real thing.
Papers with embedded fibers or planchettes—inclusions that look like confetti or tiny dots—are widely available as label stocks. Even the use of expensive or unusual substrates, such as textured stock or parchment, may serve as a mild deterrent to counterfeiters.

Watermarks


Watermarks are a classic anti-counterfeiting feature found in the U.S. notes as well as currency and other important documents around the world. A watermark is created during the manufacture of the paper: While the paper is still wet, it is pressed with a cylinder roll bearing an image in relief. The raised areas on the roll compress fibers in the paper, making the paper thinner in those areas. Thinner paper transmits more light, allowing the watermark to ‘‘appear’’ when light is shined through the note.

Embossing


Embossing a document, label, or package—creating a raised figure or pattern on the surface using a die, heat, or varnish—can be used to deter counterfeiters. Embossing and texture are increasingly important as scanners and printers improve. Though new imaging technologies are better than ever at reproducing color and print quality, they cannot reproduce the texture of an embossed surface.

Reactive Inks


Inks formulated to react to stimuli by changing color challenge counterfeiters and can be relatively easy for consumers to recognize. The $20 bill features an optically variable ink (OVI) that appears to shift from green to black as light hits it from different angles. Thermochromatic inks, which change color in response to changes in temperature, can be activated when a shopper puts her thumb on a label. Other inks may fluoresce in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light or change colors when exposed to specific chemicals.
Inks with highly specific spectral signatures can be authenticated with photospectrometers, even when they appear no different from counterfeiters’ inks to the naked eye. Inks provide a good illustration of the difference between overt and covert technology. Thermochromatic inks are overt—the authenticating feature can easily be seen by the public. Measuring the photospectral signature of an ink requires a specialized reader and the knowledge that the feature is included in the package, making it a covert technology.

Taggants


Inks may also be impregnated with taggants, microscopic markers that can be detected with various decoders. For instance, a microscope can reveal cell-sized particles that feature a company’s logo. A hand-held reader wand can detect specific reflection, refraction or electromagnetic properties of taggants in ink. One Australian wine producer even blended DNA from a grape vine into its label ink as a very unique taggant.

Printing Techniques


High-quality printing is a classic anti-counterfeiting measure. Microprinting, or the creation of extremely tiny characters such as the words ‘‘United States of America’’ around Andrew Jackson’s portrait on the U.S. $20 bill, cannot be readily achieved by most small printers or replicated on inkjets in a home counterfeiting operation. Similarly, printing elaborate scrollwork and other ultrafine geometric patterns—called guilloche printing—can challenge counterfeiters. Some anti-counterfeiting companies offer sophisticated guilloche patterns that reveal a signal word, such as ‘‘VOID,’’ if a protected document is photocopied. Digital ‘‘watermarks’’ can be embedded in graphics and detected by scanners.

Holograms


A technology that got its start in the 1940s, holograms have long been used to authenticate valuable items such as credit cards, electronic parts, software, and even clothing.
There are two types of holograms. Surface-relief, or rainbow transmission, holograms are the familiar rainbow- colored images that are common in packaging because of their low cost and minimal thickness. Surfacerelief holograms are embossed onto thermoplastic film backed with aluminum. Lippmann holograms—created by capturing wave interference patterns on special photographic materials—offer the illusion of greater depth and clarity, are more difficult to produce, and can include multiple frames, microprinting, and extremely fine details that can aid in authentication.
Holograms are interesting and attractive enough to capture the eye of consumers, which offers some overt brand protection, but the relative ease of counterfeiting surface-relief holograms themselves mean that the most effective security features on a good hologram are more covert.
Avariant on holograms, latent image technology, uses a polarizer to reveal a very sharp, difficult-to-counterfeit image.

Electronic Tags


Integrated circuit (IC) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies are catapulting anti-counterfeiting efforts to a new level. Tiny printed circuits can be affixed to labels and packages to carry significant amounts of information. Active RFID chips draw power from built-in batteries to send a signal many meters; as battery technology becomes increasingly miniaturized and inexpensive, active RFID will find many new uses in packaging. Passive RFID chips do not require a power source—a radio query from an electronic reader provides enough energy to allow the chip to report its data—so they can be extremely small, thin and inexpensive. Users may write new information to IC tags, adding flexibility.

TAMPER EVIDENT FEATURES


Rather than try to reproduce a package, some counterfeiters use a brand’s genuine packaging and refill it or adulterate the ingredients. Any tampering with a package represents a significant threat to both the brand and the consumer, so anti-tampering features can be extremely important elements of a brand protection campaign.
From the days of sealing wax, signet rings and signatures across the folds of an envelope, tamper-evident features have been employed. In many ways, the principles remain the same as they have been for centuries.

Induction Sealing


The familiar foil seals under the lids of products from pain reliever to peanut butter utilize a technology called induction sealing. A laminate consisting of a foil and polymer on a paper backing is placed across the top of a plastic or glass container. Passing the container and lidding material under an electrical induction coil causes the foil layer to heat up in response to the electromagnetic energy supplied by the coil. The foil is released from the backing, and the polymer (heated by the aluminum) fuses with the lip of the container. The result is a tight seal. Any attempt to access the contents of the container is immediately apparent in the form of a torn or missing seal. Many induction seals are designed to leave a residue on the lip of the container, showing that the laminate has been removed.

Tamper-Evident Films


Many polymer materials are employed as heat-sealed wraps or capsules over lids to provide evidence of tampering. The materials are typically quite durable, but are prone to ragged tearing or shattering when someone applies force to them or attempts to slip them off of the package. Many tamper-evident films also include holograms or other anti-counterfeiting features to establish authenticity and to ensure that they are not replaced with a simpler shrink film after the package has been opened.

Tamper-Evident Labels


Some pressure-sensitive labels include a layer that remains firmly adhered to the product, leaving behind adhesive residue or displaying a message such as ‘‘void’’ if the label has been removed. Other labels are constructed with perforations or built-in weak points to prevent their intact removal. (This is often seen with price tags, which are difficult to remove intact and move to a more expensive product. The same benefits apply when preventing the movement of wine or pharmaceutical labels to unauthorized packages.)

RFID Chips


Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips are playing an increasing role in tamper protection. Active RFID chips, which include a power supply, can sound a radiofrequency distress call, including specific product or package information, if they have been tampered with. Passive RFID chips, which respond to electronic queries from readers, may provide evidence of tampering when they are deployed on destructible labels—tampering destroys the antenna, so the chip’s non-performance can serve as a warning that tampering has taken place.
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