SICPA, which is headquartered in the Swiss canton of Vaud and is a leading supplier of tax stamp and government revenue solutions, has received an award for Best Swiss Company.

Looking back over the year that was, a few key developments spring to mind including: new programmes, illicit tobacco soaring, emerging technologies, the ISO tax stamp standard coming of age, and a ground-breaking study spotlighting track and trace breakeven cost.

Although it is impossible to predict the future, it is clear that the industry has a shared expectation for 2023 when it comes to revenue stamps: growth!

Brand protection and supply chain security specialist VerifyMe has announced the renewal of its exclusive ink taggant partnership with HP Indigo for a further five years.

In this series on emerging technologies, it has been notable how many of these technologies featured strongly at TSTF 2022. In this respect, however, warehouse automation is an interesting exception in that it hardly featured at that meeting.

A review of this year's headlines.
January
Ecuador under pressure? Pakistan reports 11% higher sugar tax revenues; Hungary’s ANY Security Printing to buy Romania’s Atlas; Economist Impact webinar discusses shift in illicit trade in Europe; new family of optical features from OpSec Security; the newest bootleg liquor is counterfeit bourbon; Jura workshops look to the future of security printing, including advancements in digital security printing.

Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ interviewed Jérôme Pichot, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Track & Trace, to learn more about his approach and aspirations in managing this innovative French company.

Authentix has announced that Tim Driscoll has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer, and advised the appointment of Chad Crouch as Senior Vice President, Revenue Operations and a member of the executive leadership team.

A partnership between p-Chip Corp, Kaasmerk Matec and the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano has led to the creation of a new digital traceability tag for parmesan cheese.

Reconnaissance has previously reported on the role of brand protection in building and policing the metaverse. Now Meta, the company that is literally betting its future on the success of the metaverse as a virtual retail store, is taking steps to protect brands’ metaverse presence.

Most brand protection strategies, for obvious reasons, focus on preventing fakes and knockoffs ever reaching the hands of consumers. But what if, despite best efforts on the part of brand owners, a customer still has doubts about the authenticity of the handbag, watch or jewellery they have purchased?

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has announced that the social platform will launch a revamped account verification service at the beginning of December, including the allocation of different colour-coded ticks to verified individuals, government entities, and companies.

As a first step towards its goal of enhancing traceability systems in the food sector, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a final rule on ‘Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods’.

Acviss Technologies has developed a blockchain-based traceability application for the Coffee Board of India that gets around the issue of operating when there is no internet connection.

For many companies involved in authentication, the technologies they deploy are aimed at preventing cyber and online attacks. But, as this report demonstrates, research into authenticating physical goods still continues apace.

The FINAT Sustainability Award has been held annually since 2014 to honour member initiatives that address environmental and social aspects of sustainability.

Polyart Group, a supplier of film and paper substrates for the specialty label market, and EDGYN, a security solutions specialist, have announced a partnership for the Asia Pacific region.

Twitter users have been asking why online marketplace reseller StockX has removed the words ‘verified authentic’ from the green, coin-shaped tag it attaches to items sold on its platform.

The Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency has put into operation a system of authenticating genuine goods via QRCode to encourage people and businesses to use solutions to develop products in eCommerce transactions.

The international standard ISO 22382:2018, which was published in October 2018 as a guidance for tax stamp issuers on best practice in the design, sourcing, issuance, and monitoring of tax stamps, is due for review in 2023.

Ethiopia is looking to introduce tax stamps and track and trace for the first time, with the Ministry of Finance issuing a request for expression of interest to provide a technology solution for an excise stamp and track and trace system.

Globally, revenue authorities are broadening their range of excisable goods to widen the tax base and generate more tax revenues.

The South African case study on dealing with illicit tobacco continues to be an interesting one to follow.

While direct marking could be considered as an opportunity for traceability solutions, it could also be viewed as a threat to physical tax stamps.

Polyart Group, a supplier of film and paper substrates for the specialty label market, and EDGYN, a security solutions specialist, have announced a partnership for the Asia Pacific region.

While the principal method of applying unique identifiers and other variable information to a tax or authentication label is via digital printing, some labels carry that information in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

In 2019, The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) launched a new anti-counterfeiting forum designed to encourage the development of cutting-edge technological solutions, including blockchain, to combat counterfeiting.

To accompany our feature this month on recent trends in near-field communication (NFC), we thought we’d take a snapshot of new authentication and identification programmes that are opting for NFC tags.

Communications and security provider Toppan and Japan’s NICT have now announced the launch of PQC CARD®, which they claim is the world’s first smart card equipped with post-quantum cryptography.

Counterfeit and substandard medicines have existed for as long as medicines have existed. The OECD estimates the global trade in illicit pharmaceuticals to be worth at least $4.4 billion annually.

We all know what a challenge it is to get consumers to authenticate anything. With this in mind, Securikett has developed an anti-cloning security seal that brings the entertainment factor to product authentication.

Tausa-Pelcco, a Mexican company producing security documents and vehicle, road, and urban identification plates, has purchased an HP Indigo 6K Secure Press, the first in Latin America.

A team of scientists, from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Hong Kong have developed an optical metasurface to create colour-selective 3D polarisation structures.

While near-field communication (NFC) has become the dominant technology for contactless payments, it has taken a backseat to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in terms of general adoption, with most people not even aware that their smartphones can have NFC built into them.

Like all progressive companies operating in the authentication and brand protection sectors, OpSec Security is committed to sustainability in its processes and products – as its new product line OpSec® Eco demonstrates.

SICPA has finalised the roll-out of its SICPATRACE® platform in the US state of Michigan, under a new five-year contract with the Department of Treasury.

Several large-scale seizures over the course of this year have shown that a concerning development, identified during Europol’s Serious and Criminal Organized Crime Assessment 2021 (SOCTA-21), has unfortunately not abated.

SICPA and nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

In a press statement marking the fifth anniversary of the introduction of excise tax in the United Arab Emirates, the country’s Federal Tax Authority hailed its implementation as an all-round success.

Despite great efforts at a global level, illicit trade has grown into a pandemic, and India is no exception.

There are two conferences coming up soon which show just how important optical security features still are for authenticating documents such as banknotes, ID, and tax stamps.

Sri Lanka’s Commissioner General of Excise, M J Gunasiri, has announced that excise revenues from arrack and other alcoholic beverages have plummeted by 40%.

The ability to link a physical object such as a stamp, label, or direct mark into the digital space, through mobile devices such as a smartphone, is an area of great current interest. A key question to consider is how this physical/digital link may change so we can ensure our technologies keep pace with these changes.

Swiss-based SICPA and New-Mexico nanotechnology company UbiQD have announced an expansion of their partnership to develop security inks based on the latter’s quantum dot technology.

Ennoventure Inc has recently received an award for the most secure anti-counterfeit technology 2022 at the EMEA Security Conference and Exhibition, held in Saudi Arabia.

Austria and US based mobile authentication technology company Authentic Vision has announced the US market release of its Meta Anchor™ technology that, it claims, secures the link between physical products and digital value, services and experiences.

Dutch security print company Royal Joh Enschedé is teaming up with PROxID and Concordium blockchain to connect the world between security print products, NFTs and the metaverse.

Spectroscopy, the branch of science that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra resulting from the interaction between radiation and the sample, has found many uses in differentiating between real and fake banknotes, secure documents and pharmaceuticals.

A growing theme within the pages of Authentication & Brand News™ is the trend for technology providers of brand protection and authentication services to expand the usefulness of their offerings to include traceability of raw and recycled materials.

The Romanian wine sector has started using an authentication technology developed by Eluceda to authenticate the provenance of its regional wines and protect drinkers from potential counterfeits.

The dates have been announced for next year’s Optical & Digital Document Security conference (ODDS), which takes place 17-19 April 2023 in Prague.

The ability to link a physical object such as a label, stamp or direct mark into the digital space through devices such as a smartphone is a persuasive and growing field.

Giesecke+Devrient is probably better known for producing banknote paper and printing banknotes than it is for protecting brands. Having explored the brand protection market in the past, the company is now returning to protecting brands with its new SIGN® technology.

De La Rue has appointed David Sharratt as Managing Director of its Authentication division, replacing Andrew Clint, who has resigned to pursue other opportunities, after three years leading the division – and over 13 years with the company.

For over 17 years, Pakistan’s revenue authority, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has been in the crosshairs of providers of tax stamp and track and trace systems for excise products prone to revenue leakage.

The government of Nepal’s Security Printing Center in Kathmandu has issued an invitation for electronic bids for the secure printing, supply, and delivery of excise stamps on behalf of the Inland Revenue Department.

In late August 2022, a series of enforcement actions by California’s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) pushed the amount of illegal cannabis seized passed the $1 billion mark.

The Department of Excise & Taxation of Chandigarh (one of 36 states in India) has invited an expression of interest for the selection of a technology for a tax stamp and end-to-end track and trace system on alcohol products.

The ability to link a physical object such as a stamp, label, or direct mark to the digital space, through devices such as a smartphone is a persuasive and growing field.

Although secure track and trace systems are considered one of the most effective measures for reducing illicit trade, some governments are reluctant to implement them because of concerns about their cost.

The Journal of Imaging Science & Technology (JIST) has recently featured articles from the 12th China Academic Conference on Printing and Packaging that took place in Beijing in November 2021.

The Holography Conference™ (THCO) will continue to be held online (after the success of the 2020 and 2021 events) and will take place this year from 5–6 December.

Counterfeit liquor, which for years has been a problem for connoisseurs of fine wine, champagnes, and single-malt scotch, has started to become an issue for America’s fine brown liquor – bourbon.

Some brand owners don’t register their trademark and other intellectual property in China because they assume that a trademark registration in Europe or the US will provide some protection. However, a registration outside China does not provide any rights to use a mark within China, although recent changes to the legislation might offer greater protection.

The relaunch of Authentication & Brand News™ in January of this year came, to a large extent, as a response to a set of market trends triggered by the effects of COVID-19 which have been exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine and widespread inflation.

SICPA has announced a strategic partnership with the Ecuadorian Seed Association (Ecuasem) to combat seed piracy and counterfeiting in the country.

This year has so far proven very successful for Authentix, as far as contract wins for fuel marking and tax stamp/marking systems on the African continent are concerned.

The menace of illicit seeds continues to haunt farmers across the globe. And when it’s the festive season, the problem starts mushrooming in almost all countries and continents, irrespective of whether it is India in Asia, Ecuador in South America, Georgia in Europe, or Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Tanzania in Africa.

In the past ten years or so, quantum materials have become increasingly interesting to scientists looking for properties not usually exhibited by classical structures. While most solids display varying degrees of repeatability in the array of atoms from which they are formed, when you get down to the atomic level, where quantum effects are most pronounced, materials display unique attributes due to their randomness.

During the last Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™, held in Malta in May of this year, Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ was able to interview Milagro J Mendoza, a Panamanian lawyer who specialises in tax-related issues in her country and who works for the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI – or Dirección General de Ingresos) in Panama.

At the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ in May 2022, I presented a paper on the emerging technologies that I believe will have significant impact on the tax stamp business sector. From this came an article in Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ in June summarising the threats and opportunities from these. The aim of this article is to take a deeper look into one of these technologies – digital printing.

In the July 2022 issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, Dr Marietta Ulrich-Horn of Securikett stated that her company had always maintained a strong focus on tamper-evident solutions for tax stamps, because if a genuine stamp can be transferred to another product for reuse, it’s as if that stamp were actually a fake, whatever the number of security features it was carrying.

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is deeply embedded in many societies worldwide. According to Statista, global consumption in 2019 generated $1.53 trillion in legally registered sales (recorded alcohol), equating to total volume sales of more than 296 billion litres.

Counterfeit liquor, which for years has been a problem for connoisseurs of fine wine, champagnes, and single-malt scotch, has started to become an issue for America’s fine brown liquor – bourbon.

The tax stamp started life as a piece of paper that was almost the same for every product, but that soon evolved into different designs for different products, says Swiss company U-NICA, a leading provider of product and brand value protection solutions.

Every government needs revenue to run the affairs of its country in the best possible manner. Tax evasion and leakages work like a parasite feeding off the overall wellbeing of citizens, which is why every government seeks to plug those leakages, and thus recover lost revenues.

On 1 June, SICPA Morocco inaugurated its new regional coding centre for highly secure tax stamps in the industrial zone of Sidi Bernoussi in Casablanca.

Although excise tax management systems and tobacco control programmes have different goals, there is a point at which these goals overlap, given that both parties have an interest in eliminating illicit trade.

The Indian state of Rajasthan is implementing holographic tax stamps and an end-to-end traceability system on liquor products, to allow the state excise department to track and trace each bottle and case of liquor.

Dubbed the ‘Sneaker Wars’, Nike’s ongoing lawsuit against online shoe reseller StockX will likely end up dictating how intellectual property law is applied to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), declared attorney and journalist Andrew Rossow, writing for nftnow.com.

What should have been a triumphant finale to the European football season descended into chaos as police fired tear gas and pepper spray at supporters in advance of the Champions League Final in Paris. What role did ticket fraud play in creating the chaotic scenes that were televised around the world as the kick off was delayed by more than half an hour?

At the recent Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ in Malta, Dr Marietta Ulrich-Horn, CEO of Securikett, presented a solution for linking the company’s CODIKETT® unique identifying code on a tax stamp with a 2D barcode that had been laser-etched into a glass bottle.

Toppan has launched Illumigram™, a new security hologram in which three-dimensional images appear in response to strong light, such as a smartphone’s flashlight.

Those of us who still believe overt security features validated with the naked eye should be the first ‘port of call’ for checking the authenticity of something, will be heartened by the HP Anti-Counterfeiting and Fraud programme.

MagVision, the magnetic innovation start-up, has announced a merger with Macon Management and Design (MMD), a UK-based engineering design company.

The importance of technology in protecting products, people and services against malicious attack has never been greater, as this cross-section of innovations shows.

The return of in-person conferences this year, after a hiatus of two or more years, has seen a slew of new features launched for banknote authentication.

In June, Amazon released its second Brand Protection Report, describing the results of its activities to ensure authenticity of goods sold in its store, and to fight bad actors.

Optel Group was a welcome addition to the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ this year as it brought a different emphasis to the table when it comes to tax stamp solution delivery. Dr Foued Barouni, Solutions Manager, presented a paper explaining how high-speed production conditions affect the way tax stamp compliance could be delivered.

In the world of public tenders, the acronyms RFI and RFP, as well as some others, are used on a regular basis by government institutions all over the world, as well as their authorised suppliers and, of course, the media. But does everyone really know what they stand for? And what their usage is, or should be?

After more than 15 years’ experience in developing and operating SICPATRACE® – a leading product authentication and traceability solution for government authorities – SICPA has launched its latest technology platform: SICPATRACE® Evo.

First presented at the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum in May 2022, in this article Dr Alan Hodgson considers emerging technologies and developments that are likely to have an impact on the tax stamp and traceability industry.

Following its 5th Annual General Meeting, held in May 2022 in Malta during the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum, the International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) has appointed three directors to its board. Furthermore, ITSA is pleased to announce the appointment of a new chairman.

UK print specialist Hague Group has acquired PSL Print Management, also based in the UK. The acquisition has increased turnover for the enlarged group to £50 million, and makes it one of the largest privately owned print specialist groups in the UK.

In the second half of this year, SICPA will open its ‘unlimitrust’ campus, in a brand-new building situated close to its headquarters in Prilly, Switzerland.

The European Commission has appointed NYSE-listed Dow (one of the three largest chemical producers in the world) to supply the new common fiscal marker for tax rebated fuels in the European Union.

While globally, most tax stamps are used on tobacco products at federal level, the situation is somewhat different in India, where almost all tax stamps in circulation are used on alcoholic beverages at individual state level.

The Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™ was an ideal gathering to learn how ISO 22382:2018, the international tax stamp standard, is being used. It gave the opportunity to hear revenue agencies’ and tax stamp suppliers’ attitude to the standard four years after it was published.

A snapshot of the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum, Malta. More images and the conference review will be posted on the website shortly https://taxstamptraceabilityforum.com/.

The market for legal cannabis is growing, and California, the largest regulated cannabis market in the United States, ranks first among states that are taking in more cannabis taxes than alcohol taxes.

Chiplytics, a hardware security company building inspection technology that provides insights into the microelectronics supply chain, has announced its official launch from Scout Ventures.

Without being able to hold or look at a physical object, or even capture the URL of a webpage, the challenges facing trademark infringement and brand protection are different to authentication in the real world (ITRW).

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an acceleration of what was already on the cards as far as brand owners are concerned: the need to change the way in which physical brand intelligence- gathering at point of sale is carried out.

Pharmaceuticals are among the most heavily counterfeited goods on the planet and, according to the OECD and the EUIPO, are ‘attractive for counterfeiters given the high profit margins, low risks of detection and prosecution, weak penalties, and the ease with which consumers can be deceived into believing that the counterfeit products are genuine.’

The worldwide rising cost of food, due in equal measures to the war in the Ukraine, rising shipping costs and the increase in energy bills, is in danger of creating fertile ground for an increase in food fraud.

The OECD has published a series of reports into illicit trade, the most recent of which is ‘eCommerce Challenges in Illicit Trade in Fakes’. The report is the first outcome of a special project on illicit trade between the Anti-Illicit Trade Expert Group (AITEG) and the public-private partnership (PPP), established under the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade (TF-CIT).

Anti-fraud product provider Outseer has released its latest findings on brand abuse, and it doesn’t make pleasant reading for online banking and eCommerce. According to the latest quarterly analysis from Outseer’s FraudAction team, brand impersonation scams continue to exploit the sharp rise in digital banking and eCommerce during the pandemic.

Origyn, the Swiss foundation dedicated to identifying, authenticating and protecting the ownership of objects of value, has announced a partnership with WatchBox, a global leader in collectible luxury timepieces.

The Tax Stamp and Traceability Forum™ (TSTF) returned as an in-person event in May 2022 with 194 registrants from 99 organisations and 35 countries. The conference was organised into eight sessions spanning two full days plus a pre-conference workshop day.

The Cannabis Work Group of AIM North America, the premier alliance for the automated data capture technologies industry, has released a white paper reviewing the use of automatic identification and data capture solutions (including barcodes, RFID, and NFC) for cannabis traceability.

Join us for a cannabis panel discussion on 17 May at the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum in Malta. Technology providers and government representatives will discuss how countries should be dealing with the high earning potential of cannabis versus more traditional tobacco and alcohol products, and will compare different seed-to-sale authentication and track and trace mechanisms for protecting against illicit trade.

After several years of little to no travel as a result of COVID-19, it was wonderful to meet up with old and new colleagues again at the High Security Printing™ Latin America conference, held in Mexico City in March.

Following the implementation of its automated marking system in September 2020, the Togolese revenue authority, l’Office Togolais des Recettes (OTR), has reported a substantial increase in excise collections.

The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) in Bahrain has launched its digital tax stamp and traceability system on cigarettes, following the signing of a contract with De La Rue in 2021.

Canada’s 2022 budget has proposed potential changes to Canada’s federal excise tax system for cannabis, including allowing licensed cannabis producers to transfer excise duty stamps between them.

You may have noticed that, in the last few issues since the launch of the newly-branded Authentication & Brand News™, there has been something of an emphasis on sustainability. For companies in our sector (indeed, companies in any sector), sustainability, particularly in the environmental sense, is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a ‘must have’.

Flexible electronics developer PragmatIC Semiconductor has announced its involvement in leading an Innovate UK, Smart Sustainability Plastic Packaging business project that will make reusable plastic packaging systems a reality at scale.

The Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department of the Indian state of Telangana has implemented a pilot project for using RFID tags or QR code-enabled systems to track the inventory of gunny (burlap) sacks used for supplying food grain under the state Public Distribution System.

The circular economy presents a $4.5 trillion business opportunity for companies that concentrate on rethinking products and services using principles based on durability, renewability, reuse, repair, replacement, upgrades, refurbishment, and reduced material use.

Blockchain – the technology that underpins the digital currency bitcoin and is essentially a digital database of time-stamped records or transactions, which are unchangeable and decentralised – is becoming increasingly popular as a track and trace tool for physical supply chains and to guard against counterfeit goods.

Conferences are back! And this includes the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™, taking place from 16-18 May 2022 in Malta. The Forum opens with a workshop on the pros and cons of using sophisticated digital printers for secure documents, including a review of digital security inks, feature design software, printing hardware and real-life applications.

Holography has helped to bring smartphone digital interaction in the brand protection and authentication space closer as the security technology discovers new outlets and innovative applications.

We have significant investment going into digital technologies, both from within our community and from the technology sector. However, to continue to add security to our physical documents we need to continue investment in ‘printed’ features to complement these for multilayer security.

Crane Currency and Essentra Packaging have announced a strategic partnership to develop a range of next generation security features for the pharmaceutical and beauty packaging industry.

The advent of the smartphone has led to a surge in the development of smartphone readable security features.

During a recent symposium on the implementation of track and trace in the fertiliser sector, Pakistan’s FBR declared that, given the proven success of the system on tobacco and sugar, its aim going forward was to ensure ‘no production without taxation’ across the country.

Eighteen months after lifting its cigarette ban, South Africa still struggles with inflated illicit sales, proving that the experts were right when they said the ban would entrench illicit trade into the day-to-day life of the country and make it very difficult to eradicate.

The Smoke Free Partnership, a European coalition of NGOs working to mobilise governments to make tobacco control a political priority, has raised concerns about the track and trace provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.

For tobacco product manufacturers required to comply with the traceability provisions of the EU TPD, the placing of individual identifying codes on each pack, and then on each carton is a challenging additional step in the production process.

A new nationwide study commissioned by SICPA North America shows overwhelming support among cannabis users for more in-depth information about the products they may use.

After the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, consumers in Delhi will soon be able to buy liquor in 180ml Tetra Pak containers.

According to high-security printer Royal Joh Enschedé (RJE), the humble postage stamp is undergoing a phenomenal digital transformation.

Cannabis is fast becoming one of the top excise revenue sources for states that have legalized the substance. Cannabis excise tax revenue collection, as a matter of fact, is outpacing liquor tax collection in most states where it has been legalized.

The programme for the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ is now complete, and promises to deliver a compelling and informative mix of technical papers, case studies, panel discussions and roundtable workshops.

Identiv, Inc, a Nasdaq-listed provider of secure identification systems within the Internet of Things, has expanded its partnership with collectID in Switzerland, to provide a product authentication and consumer interaction solution on collectible football jerseys, via the use of embeddable near-field communication, life-of-garment tags.

With all of the media coverage surrounding the use of technology in the fight against online piracy and counterfeiting, we shouldn’t forget that trademark and copyright infringements were going on long before the invention of the world-wide-web.

Pharmaceuticals remain a real and potentially dangerous target for fraudsters, as these two new tamper-evident and anti-counterfeit developments testify.

Intellectual property infringing products with a value of almost €2 billion were seized in the EU’s internal market and at external borders in 2020, according to an annual seizures report published at the end of last year.

In the January issue of Authentication & Brand News™, we described how brand protection systems increasingly consist of an integrated physical/digital solution that offers multiple functions.

Meta’s top social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have become enormously successful e-commerce channels, and the counterfeiters have followed the money, says a new report by Ghostdata.

In January, the European Commission and European Union Intellectual Property Office launched the new EU SME Fund, which offers vouchers for EU-based SMEs to help them protect their intellectual property rights.

Luxury and premium resale platforms and brands are improving their authentication processes in response to more sophisticated counterfeits, according to a report by Bella Webb of Vogue Business.

Digital watermark specialist Digimarc was recently featured in a news clip from the BBC, the UK’s broadcaster, on how invisible watermarks could increase plastic recycling. The clip explored industry testing efforts in Europe and discussed packaging attributes that could be identified through the use of Digimarc’s technology, giving plastic packaging a so-called ‘voice’.

The Smoke Free Partnership, a European coalition of NGOs working to mobilise governments to make tobacco control a political priority, has raised concerns about the track and trace provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.

Recommerce – the sale of pre-owned goods – is a nearly $40-billion-a-year industry and is expected to double soon. In an article on Bloomberg Law, attorneys from international law firm Perkins Coie examine the IP infringement questions facing resellers and brands in the resale marketplace.

The Austrian pilot project ‘Digi-Cycle’ – supported by the Austrian drinks industry to facilitate householding recycling of beverage containers through a rewards scheme – took place last August and September. Central to the pilot were tamper-evident labels and a system for generating limitless UIDs by Austrian security solutions provider Securikett.

TruTrace Technologies, a Canadian developer of a fully-integrated blockchain platform, has entered into a strategic partnership with Australian technology company Laava to drive product provenance and traceability.

Last month’s relaunch of Authentication & Brand News™ comes, ‘at a time when it is more important than ever for brand owners to safeguard their intellectual property’. This is undoubtedly true, with the effects of COVID-19 making it easier than ever for counterfeiters and fraudsters to abuse intellectual and other corporate property.

The UPC (Universal Product Code) linear barcode has offered price lookup functionality for decades. However, the classic barcode is no longer keeping up with today’s growing demands for greater product information transparency, traceability, and authentication.

Nitches Inc, a designer and manufacturer of high-end clothing and accessories, has announced the launch of its patent-pending Owner Verification System (OVS) to prove the authenticity of its exclusive capsule collections created with celebrities and influencers.

Foil and thin film technology company KURZ has been a pioneer in the use of diffractive optical anti-counterfeit features on banknotes since its earliest developments. Now, KURZ has made another step forward, with OVD Kinegram (OVDK), a member of the KURZ Group since 1999, in introducing its latest optical technology, KINEGRAM DYNAMIC®.

A group of academics at South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) have utilised natural silk fibres from domesticated silkworms to build an environmentally friendly digital security system that they say is ‘practically unbreachable’.

Optical and materials security specialist KURZ has introduced a range of sustainable security labels as part of its TRUSTCONCEPT® brand portfolio. According to the company, the combination of its security features with individually combinable, environmentally friendly substrates means that customers can benefit from sustainable labels without forgoing its tried-and-tested security technology.

Nanopixel, a subsidiary of the light science technologies group Lumenco, has announced the creation of MicroEdge™, a patented optical security feature that can be moulded directly into the surface of plastic products or packaging.

This month’s editorial makes a longitudinal study of the shifting geo-political forces that have formed the nature of brand protection. Another, more direct, hypothesis is that counterfeiting and other types of brand fraud are straightforward criminal activities with no respect for borders, treaties or the law.

From 6 May, the Mozambique Tax Authority will enter a new phase of combating excise tax evasion with the introduction of a direct digital marking system on beer and ready-to-drink beverages.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has appointed Dentsu Tracking, a specialised brand of Dentsu International Switzerland, as provider of the UK’s standalone tobacco track and trace system.

De La Rue has signed a contract with the Oman Tax Authority to implement a tax stamp and digital traceability solution for excisable goods.

Over the years, the business case for using tax stamps has increased considerably, in tandem with the emergence of new technologies and best practices for managing excise and other goods that require robust supply chain controls.

TAXMAP®, an e-invoicing and tax filing platform based on the use of blockchain bookkeeping and digital tax stamps, has been awarded a UK Smart Grant of £500,000 from Innovate UK. The grant will be used by TAXMAP to provide e-commerce companies with a real-time, cross-border tax and audit compliance solution.

Conferences are back! And this includes the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™, which takes place from 16-18 May 2022 in Malta. The programme is well on its way to being finalised, and here we share some of the papers and discussions confirmed so far.

Reconnaissance International, publisher of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, is pleased to announce the launch of its monthly publication, Authentication & Brand News™, with effect from January 2022, replacing Authentication News®.

Part of any anti-illicit product strategy should ideally include measures to reduce consumer demand for illicit products in the first place. While such measures could include imposing penalties on consumers for buying illicit goods, Taiwan has gone in the opposite direction with a scheme that rewards consumers for buying genuine, compliant goods.

Launched in 2021, HP Inc has installed its newly imported HP Indigo 6K Secure Digital Press in Nepal, for the local production of tax stamps and other secure documents.

Nanotech Security Corporation, now owned by Meta Materials Inc, is perhaps best known for designing, originating, recombining, and mass-producing nanotechnology-based films for securing documents of value against counterfeiting and tampering. But the Canada-based firm also offers a range of labelling solutions for advanced brand protection, to which it has now added a holographic version.

Brand owners of mass-produced goods have for some time had access to a range of anti-counterfeit devices, such as holograms, security inks and nano-optic effects that provide clear visual signals of authenticity to consumers.

Each year, the authentication industry produces tens of millions of documents that require fast and reliable examination to confirm their authenticity. Doculus Lumus® is a mobile document checking device from charismaTec that was developed specifically for use in the often challenging environments of document checking for border management, law enforcement, security printing and banking.

The increasing trend towards consolidation in the track and trace industry continues with the announcement that Movilitas has been acquired by Engineering USA, bolstering the group’s industrial digitisation division.

Over the last few years, I have been following a number of technologies to see how these may work together to create eye-catching security features. One good example of these is the use of arrays of micro-lenses to produce caustic surfaces. This is the topic of this article.

De La Rue’s Authentication division recently presented interesting developments in digital security printing and product traceability.

Fluorescence – the phenomena where some materials emit radiation as a result of external stimuli – is usually a result, at least in the authentication industry, of visible light being emitted from incident radiation of a shorter wavelength.

Part of any anti-illicit product strategy should ideally include measures to reduce consumer demand for illicit products in the first place. While such measures could include imposing penalties on consumers for buying illicit goods, Taiwan has gone in the opposite direction with a scheme that rewards consumers for buying genuine, compliant goods.

Happy 2022 to all our readers – and welcome to the first issue of our new monthly publication – Authentication & Brand News™, which is replacing Authentication News®.

Fathom Optics has patented a software-based process using light field technology to bring 3D and motion graphics to security print without additional materials such as lenticular sheets or metallic foils.

In the August 2021 issue of Tax Stamp & Traceability News™, we covered some rather controversial changes that Ecuador’s tax authority, Servicio de Rentas Internas (SRI) had pushed through back in April in the form of Resolution NACDGERCGC21-00000019.

Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reported 11% higher tax revenues from the sugar sector, following the expansion of its tax stamp and track and trace system in November last year (the system was initially launched on domestically produced tobacco products earlier in 2021).

Hungary-based ANY Security Printing has signed an agreement to acquire Romanian forms production and personalisation services provider Atlas for €1.37 million ($1.55 million).

The deadline for submitting a 200-word abstract on your proposed topic or case study is 28 January 2022.

In December last year, Economist Impact, part of the Economist Group, convened a roundtable titled ‘Continental shift: tackling illicit trade in Europe’ to discuss the fundamental changes illicit trade has undergone in Europe and to provide insights into how governments, service providers and industry need to address the issue.

OpSec Security has launched OpSec® SuRe, a new family of surface relief effects for security and brand protection applications that provide striking Level 1 features.

If you rang in the New Year with that hard-to-find bottle of bourbon you had been hunting down in off-the-beaten-path stores or through a private social media collectors’ group, you might have been getting more than you bargained for… you might have gotten counterfeit.

Jura Security Printing recently held a series of practical workshops in Budapest, Hungary to discuss the future of security printing. This was one of the first events in the last year or so that customers and suppliers had physically travelled to in order to meet up in person, so it was filled with plenty of energy and enthusiasm.

The International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) is inviting regional government authorities to a pre-conference seminar to discuss best practices and lessons learned in the tracking and tracing of excise products, especially tobacco and alcohol.