ARTICLE
6 September 2024

Fake It Until You...Can't: How High-tech Labels Are Shining A Light On Fakes

MC
Marks & Clerk

Contributor

Marks & Clerk is one of the UK’s foremost firms of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys. Our attorneys and solicitors are wired directly into the UK’s leading business and innovation economies. Alongside this we have offices in 9 international locations covering the EU, Canada and Asia, meaning we offer clients the best possible service locally, nationally and internationally.
Counterfeit products harm brands by reducing revenue and posing health risks to consumers. To combat this, luxury brands use advanced anti-counterfeiting methods, including RFID tags and legal action. A recent breakthrough in anti-counterfeiting technology involves fluorescent liquid crystal labels, enhancing product authenticity verification.
United Kingdom Intellectual Property

Counterfeit products are a major headache for legitimate brands, draining their revenue and stifling their ability to grow and innovate. On top of that, these knock-offs often fall far short of the quality consumers expect and can even pose serious health and safety risks due to the use of harmful chemicals.

For luxury brands, counterfeits are a real menace. Not only do these fakes undermine the exclusivity and prestige of high-end brands, but they're also tied to broader societal problems, including organised crime.

To tackle this issue, brands like Hermès are pulling out all the stops. They're using a mix of strategies, from strong intellectual property protection and cutting-edge anti-counterfeiting tech like RFID tags and microchips, to strict legal action and unique patterns that make their products stand out.

A new exciting development in the fight against counterfeits comes from a research group at a Japanese national research university. They've developed innovative labels featuring cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) that reflect light to create a one-of-a-kind pattern or signature.

Initially, this signature can only be seen through a circular polariser. But when fluorescent dyes are added to the label, you need both a circular polariser and ultraviolet (UV) light to verify authenticity, making it even harder for counterfeiters to replicate.

The creation of fluorescent CLC particles, which display both circularly polarised structural color and circularly polarised luminescence, represents a big leap forward in anti-counterfeiting efforts as these labels will be very difficult to replicate.

This breakthrough is set to boost brand protection and keep consumers safe from the dangers of counterfeit goods.

To create these specialized tags, scientists mix fluorescent dyes with CLCs, causing the helical structure of the crystals to twist either to the left or right—a property known as chirality. This twisting determines how the crystals reflect light, producing a specific "light signature". The precise control over this twisting and the resulting light patterns makes these labels almost impossible to counterfeit.

www.technologynetworks.com/...

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