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FIGHTING THE COUNTERFEITING FIRE: Measures you can take to limit your exposure
With the global electronics industry valued at well over $1trillion, it’s perhaps not surprising that it is an industry regularly targeted by counterfeiters. In fact, counterfeiting is growing worldwide at an alarming rate – with sales now into the billions of dollars per year. Tim Congdon, european business development manager at CCL Design UK(which recently acquired Fascia Graphics), has more
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ounterfeiting of electronics products can harm or kill, and at the same
time, inflict serious damage on the brand names and bottom lines of major manufacturers. For instance, in the fire & security sector, lifesaving products such as automatic fire sprinklers have been discovered to be bearing a counterfeit FM approvals mark and VIKING brand name. In short, these automatic sprinklers, found in Malaysia, could not be relied upon to react to, or control, a fire. The electronics industry has started to
recognise the importance of protecting customers, intellectual property, and brands. One way in which counterfeiting can be reduced is by using brand protection and authentication and this is leading to a significant demand. For instance, this month, it was reported that the global market for anti-counterfeiting, brand protection and security packaging technology is forecast to grow strongly over the next four years to $3.65billion in 2022. Outside of investing in anti- counterfeiting products, there are a few things that manufacturers can consider doing to limit their exposure. For instance, if you’re exporting to the US, it is vitally important that the Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) mark is achieved. The UL mark is the most widely recognised safety certification mark in the world, and it has been a product safety leader for over 100 years - widely acknowledged for its safety standards, integrity, and independence. The UL mark is also particularly recognised in the US by consumers, regulatory authorities and the insurance industry and UL can enforce standards on behalf of manufacturers. For those manufacturers that are exporting more widely out of the UK, you may want to also consider working with Customs and Border Protection to register Intellectual Property Rights with them. Providing guidelines to customers on how to detect counterfeit products can also be effective. These guidelines could include a list of authorised resellers, and details around the security aspects of the product. You could also supply some examples of
8 MAY 2018 | ELECTRONICS
both identifiers and functional anti- counterfeit solutions – by including both overt and covert security features built into the design. In short, products must remain easy to authenticate, but almost impossible to copy. Some examples of these products
Figure 1: Multi level security
ways in which counterfeit products can be discovered. For instance, this can include misspellings on the product or its packaging, codes that don’t match (i.e. between the component and the assembly code), and finally part-specific requirements such as humidity may be missing on a counterfeit item. However, you can take all the above precautions, but without using anti- counterfeiting solutions (as explained below), you still leave yourself open to potential abuse. This threat has led to the development of a range of options for manufacturers. Brand owners can now work with
Figure 2: Invisible fluorescence
specialist manufacturers to develop innovative ways to design labels, ranging from tamper evident box seals to highly complex multi-layer authentication labels. Decorative brand labels can also double as
include Videomark, Security Labels (Overt/Covert) and Track & Trace. Videomark - is a highly overt security feature that has several covert layers built in. To achieve this unique overt feature a photopolymer film is utilised in the bespoke manufacturing process, which allows for 3D images to be created along with depth that cannot be achieved with traditional Holographic techniques. As such there has been no successful attempts at copying the Videomark product by counterfeiters. Security Labels (Overt/Covert) – these range from a box seal to a label with up to 20 different overt and covert security features. Customised manufacturing equipment is used to produce complex products in volume.
Track & Trace - Secure Track is a proprietary track and trace intelligent printing solution. Secure Track was designed specifically for the printing of code management solutions including serialisation., encrypted security codes and customised coding algorithms. It also provides complete traceability through the supply chain process and offers anti- counterfeit, brand protection and product verification capabilities. When searching for a manufacturer to
provide an anti-counterfeiting solution you need to ensure that all their products are designed, developed, and manufactured within a secure facility, ensuring all materials are closely controlled. The actions CCL Design Uk has taken to comply to this level of security has ensured that there have been no successful attempts at copying its more advanced products on the black market.
CCL Design UK
www.ccldesignelectronics.com e:
CCLDesignelectronics@cclind.com
/ ELECTRONICS
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