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28 ANTI-COUNTERFEITING
TiMe To
TiGHTen
youR GRip?
The rising tide of counterfeit components is causing producers and purchasers
to tighten their grip on the supply chain. Glenn Wood, of the International
Hologram Manufacturers Association, explains how
Counterfeit electronic components are entering the UK market in and forensic support
huge numbers, costing the economy over £1 billion a year services.
according to the UK Electronics Alliance (UKEA). The explosion is
New imaging
driven by many factors: increased industrial globalisation, extended
techniques, combined
supply chains, the growth of brands, weak regional law
with other overt
enforcement and lenient criminal penalties. Moreover, the impact
authentication
of the internet as a conduit for cheap counterfeit goods and the
technologies, are
impact of high quality reprographic technology have also made it
producing optical
easy and affordable to copy manufacturers’ products.
security devices with
It is not surprising that global OEMs recognise the value that enhanced resistance to
holograms can play in a range of anti-counterfeiting and brand counterfeits. This
protection applications. Safety certification organisation,
enables the identity and
Glenn W
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Underwriters Laboratories (UL), for example, has issued a new
distribution of electronic
sociatio
n
holographic security label for UL-certified products which is a
components to be
marked improvement on previous versions.
controlled via a system solution
The new holographic label can be used for authenticating
involving security authentication features, tracking mechanisms
electronic components with its gold background helping customs
and investigative services.
officers, law enforcement agencies, distributors, retailers and
consumers to identify the new label. Other anti-counterfeiting
Grey market growth
measures include colour shifting ink, a repeating pattern of floating
The rise of the internet and globalisation is impinging on an
UL symbols with a burst pattern around one of the symbols, over
organisation’s ability to maintain brand image by selling only in
which product information and a tracking code are printed, with
premium channels. The result is a burgeoning grey market economy,
the die cutting in register to these.
where legitimate goods are produced in unauthorised quantities or
Additional covert security features are also incorporated, one of diverted to a market in which a retailer has no right to sell them,
which is checked by the UL Authenticator, a credit card-size device with counterfeit products turning up for sale anywhere in the world.
that authorities can use to better identify counterfeit products.
The grey economy is challenging today’s global market place,
The success of holograms however, doesn’t lie only in its visual threatening revenue streams, eroding margins, damaging corporate
product authentication benefits. The technology’s ability to reputations, adding extra stress to distributor and retailer
incorporate other data forms and product tracking information is relationships and generally opening up the opportunity for service
becoming increasingly important, and commercially acceptable, and warranty fraud on a grand-scale. Such problems are
with the added bonus of being able to link on-pack product compounded, in the electronics sector, by health and safety concerns
identification with supply chain management, market enforcement for a product range where performance and reliability are key.
MARCH 2010 electronics-sourcing.eu
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