| Project Detail |
The problem: 119 billion EUR worth of counterfeit and pirated goods were sold in the EU in 2022 (Europol/EUIPO). Counterfeiting of goods remains a challenge for our society, increasingly so in a globalised world with long supply chains. Concurrently, the market for sensitive goods, such as medicine has also increased, further exemplifying the need for anti-counterfeit measures. The WHO estimates ~ 100,000 children under five die annually from taking counterfeit pneumonia medication. Current anti-counterfeit measures include tamper-proof seals, security numbers, RFID tags, colour-shifting inks as well as holograms etc.. However, current strategies to prevent counterfeiting of authentic goods are proving inadequate. The lack of a simple and robust way of verifying the authenticity of a product is causing economic and human harm. Simply put, the features in current physical authentication tags are clonable.
The solution: We propose first steps towards the commercialization of nanotechnology-based unclonable physical tags which can be attached to product packaging and authenticated via a 3D-printed portable microscope. This will result in cheap, reliable and fool-proof encryption AND cheap, reliable and fool-proof decryption. Our work, having advanced in the past years from a visionary idea to a prototype, offers an anti-counterfeit packaging solution and can become a part of the supply chain logistics in industries from pharmaceuticals to luxury goods and even for currency. |
