Alpvision

Cryptoglyph Brand Protection;
Combating Counterfeiting with Covert Security

The importance of Brand Protection

Counterfeit products are one of the most significant threats to brands and those who own their trademarks. A brand‘s success lives or dies with the image, design, and reputation that form its foundation. Virtually every corporation is exposed to the risk of criminal actors attempting to hijack their brand and capitalize on it, at the expense of the company who invested in building the brand and holds its intellectual property rights. Thus it is natural that corporations have a stake in identifying counterfeit products, responding to their occurrence, and curtailing their production. This is where brand protection solutions come into play.

Sadly, it is not possible to completely stop criminals from producing counterfeit goods. Counterfeiters have discovered that producing counterfeit products can be extremely lucrative if they can be passed off as genuine. These criminals have become more organized and more sophisticated, so that measures that used to deter them no longer work as well as they did in the past. However, while the risk of counterfeiting can never be completely eliminated, this doesn’t mean that one should become resigned. The complex nature of the counterfeiting threat calls for the implementation of a comprehensive brand protection strategy of anti-counterfeiting measures, specifically covert security features, that thereby prevent counterfeiters from succeeding in their efforts.

Brand protection of a brand can be considered equivalent to the shield and armor of a knight. Brand protection does exactly what these two words imply: protect a brand from damage to its reputation and revenue. Without its shield, a knight is left exposed to damage from enemies. Without brand protection, the creative foundations that underpin a brand are left exposed. Brand protection encompasses a variety of actions, including preventing the falsification of goods, damage to the reputation of the brand and trademark, and online infringements. Protecting your brand means preventing attacks on your company and customers by fraudulent actors as well as the diversion of revenue and erosion of customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty that these attacks cause.

Which kind of brands is brand protection for?

Many companies recognize the need to protect their biggest and most valuable asset, their brand. Strong, standout brands are often the result of significant investments in time and other resources. These strong brands stand out in the marketplace, easily attract customers, and thus earn more revenue and make more profits on their products. Unfortunately, a strong brand and the value it brings can be significantly damaged by counterfeit products, and as such every brand should have in place comprehensive brand protection.

In addition, in many industries counterfeit products may constitute a safety threat. Uncertainty about the authenticity of a product can lead to both potential and existing customers avoiding the products of a given brand because they are unable to tell real from fake. Even when counterfeit goods pose no threat to human safety, the flood of them into the market causes the value and recognition of a company to sink. Repairing this damage requires even more significant effort, sometimes even complete rebranding, and comes with no guarantee that afterwards a company can regain the market position held previously. Simply put, brand protection is for any company with intangible brand assets. Investing in brand protection safeguards a brand‘s priceless assets from exploitation and comprehensive brand protection, including anti-counterfeiting measures and packaging protection.

Anti-counterfeiting measures seek to prevent these counterfeit goods from entering the legitimate supply chain. These measures range from using legal action and law enforcement, monitoring products from production to distribution, and adding protective elements to product packaging so that genuine products can be distinguished from fake ones. Anti-counterfeiting measures are a critical part of brand protection. While each anti-counterfeiting measure increases the protection of a brand, the most successful brand protection efforts come from a comprehensive brand protection plan that integrates into a supply chain and covers all its levels. A strong, no-tolerance stance against counterfeiters and illegal diverters of goods protects them from manufacturing and packaging until purchase. A variety of anti-counterfeiting solutions exist that can be applied to products, but the ability to authenticate products using security features, ideally covert security features, embedded in the packaging at any specific node in a supply chain usually offers the most control and protection from fraud and tampering.              

Overt security

Overt security features are visible to the naked eye or are tactile and can be felt via touch, while covert security features need to be scanned in order to be detected. Examples of overt security features include holograms and shifting inks, while UV/IR inks, DNA tagging may be the most well-known covert security features. Overt security features are quickly identified, but this ease of use is also a weak point: that which is plainly visible to customers and authenticators is also plainly visible to counterfeiters, who quickly get to work attempting to replicate these overt security features. If they succeed, customer trust in the product and its incorporated security features are reduced even further. As such, visible features provide only a limited amount of counterfeit protection. In the past overt security features were the only economic option available to protect products and their use is still widespread.

Covert brand protection – the Cryptoglyph

Covert security features used to require both expensive materials and specialized scanning devices but Cryptoglyph technology has made it very cost-effective as well as easy to use. A Cryptoglyph is a unique, specific series of invisible micro dots printed using ordinary inks. Thus, Cryptoglyph technology rapidly integrates into existing supply chains and offers the best price-to-security ratio available on the market.

Cryptoglyph technology has made it possible to accurately detect these micro dots using just the camera of a smartphone and verify or refute a product‘s authenticity instantly. The printed micro dots are irreplicable and practically unable to removed from protected products. Continuing with the knight analogy for brand protection, where brand protection is like the knight‘s armor and shield, covert security would be equivalent to the chainmail of a knight‘s armor, providing continuous protection of a branded package. The micro dots of a Cryptoglyph are non-intrusive and flexible, being able to be applied to all printed products without affecting their design.

Cryptoglyph already successfully protects pharmaceuticals, tobacco, wine, spirits, watches, electromechanical parts, lubricants and watches. Billions of packages later, not a single counterfeit product has ever been able to pass as a legitimate one when protected with Cryptoglyph.

Combating counterfeiters doesn‘t have to be a costly fight if you protect your brand against fraud, tampering, and diversion with covert security. Read more about Cryptoglyph here, or get in touch with us for further information about your use case by filling out the form below.

The Cryptoglyph is unable to be seen without high levels of magnification. This makes Cryptoglyph a form of covert brand protection. Cryptoglyph is highly secure and designed to defeat counterfeiters.
The pseudo-random pattern of micro dots that make up the Cryptoglyph are unreplicable. As the Cryptoglyph becomes camouflaged into the packaging, it is nearly impossible both to see with the naked eye and to remove.
Standard inks and printing processes are used to print the Cryptoglyph, so the technology to be quickly integrated into an already-existing supply chain. No costly modifications or new printing equipment necessary.

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