Limitations of Marking Technologies & Taggants
Limitations of Marking Technologies & Taggants
Although our own Fibertag is an improvement on most existing taggants (because each code can be made unique, and thus traceable), it shares the limitations of all sophisticated marking systems. They all work as a forensic tool, but have little effect in preventing counterfeit. This is because, even if s/he wants to, the target consumer can't, themselves, use the marker as a way of authenticating the product. Hence, providing the consumer is content with his purchase (and has no reason to question its true origins) the counterfeit goes undetected. A small percentage are detected despite this obstacle, but then we find that the penalties for most counterfeit don't amount to sufficient deterrent in any case (although they might if there was a much greater chance of detection). This is the fundamental weakness of covert (hidden) marking.
The alternative - overt marking - such as holograms, suffers from an altogether different problem. Essentially, anything that can be seen, can be copied. Granted, copying some items can be made so difficult and expensive that the counterfeiter is deterred by the obstacles. However, if the protected item is sufficiently valuable, the counterfeiter has a continuing incentive to work out ways to mimic the copying to a satisfactory standard. And, in any case, the cost of overcoming the obstacles can sometimes fall spectacularly fast. For example when holograms were first used as an overt authentication mark, the cost of the printing process was so prohibitive that it effectively shut out the counterfeiter. 3 years later the same hologram could be created by a printer costing less than $200.
Furthermore the standard of the counterfeit mark need not be too high, because another problem with overt marking is that, in order to make it difficult to copy, it requires a level of complexity which is usually beyond the ability of mere human senses to distinguish - at which point it has effectively become 'part covert'. The end result of which is that in unsophisticated markets, whereas the real product might have a magnificent 3D 16 million colour hologram protecting it, the counterfeiter can get away with "any old" hologram and no normal consumer will spot the difference. There are even cases where holograms have been replaced by simple shiny bits of foil and without being questioned.
In other words, to be foolproof, overt marking must be so difficult to copy that average consumers will often not be able to tell the difference between the copy and the real thing.
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