DE102006005927A1 - Copy protection in conjunction with protection against counterfeiting - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the marking of products and product series in order to protect them against product counterfeiting and product piracy. The present invention consists in providing a product to be protected with a by-product which cannot be copied. Such a by-product can be produced, for example, in that foreign bodies are enclosed in a body according to a random principle, thus generating a random structure within the body that cannot be copied. This structure is stored in a database so that at any later point in time the by-product and thus the product itself can be verified by comparison with the structure stored in the database.

Description

Worldwide become the annual damage For companies through product counterfeiting and piracy to 500 billion euros (through lost sales, product liability claims, image loss or Loss of entire markets) estimated. For end users The purchase may be fake Products, e.g. Pharmaceuticals, also cause health damage.

Previous Methods for protection against counterfeiting and piracy:

1. Labeling product series or the entire product range of a company with markings in the manufacture and Verification on physical (mostly optical), chemical or biotechnological methods for the labeling of products or whose packaging is based on:

Examples:

• Goulliochen
• UV fluorescent marks
• Polymer particles with colored layers
• holograms

2. With the development of RFID technology, individual products and / or their packaging are provided with individual product codes, which thus give the products and / or packaging the character of a one-off.
Here again, a distinction is made between offline methods in which all product information is stored in the RFID tag and online methods in which product information is stored in an associated database.
However, since the information from RFID tags are basically readable, you can also make copies. Thus, the authenticity of the associated product is no longer guaranteed since the original RFID tag and copy can no longer be distinguished from an IT-based verification system.
It is thus possible, for example, to copy a product from the distribution and distribution chain once or several times, to retain the original and to reinsert the copy into circulation. In this case, the copy would be recognized as the original at the next verification. This means, in particular, that an examiner or end user can not be guaranteed whether he has tested an original product or a copy.

With The following proposal should cover the shortcomings of the previous ones Fixed procedure to protect against counterfeiting and piracy become. In particular, all instances in sales and distribution Distributor chain to the end user have the opportunity with simple Means the authenticity to test a product safely.

Solution:

The Basic principle of the solution is to be protected Product with a unique digital code (according to the state of the art Technology) and a non-copyable by-product. considered You can use these three components as a unit, which is always at an authenticity check to prove Thus, this unit also represents a non-copyable unique if at least one of these components unique and not copyable is. The preparation of such a non-copying component as For example, by-product can be achieved when transitioning a substance from a liquid in a solid state of aggregation in the resulting structure Structure is generated at random. That can for example be achieved, in which a liquid or viscous mass foreign body or gas or air bubbles are mixed, after hardening of the liquid material, a random structure in the resulting solid body let arise.

The resulting structure is scanned or photographed after curing and stored as digital information in a database. This can achieved for example with materials such as glass or plastic become transparent after curing are. The electronically or optically recorded structure is finally called Comparison pattern for latter Verifications in a corresponding digital seal assigned Record stored in a database.

Around for the Practical use 100% exclude that incidental by-products can be used with the same structure, this too can be almost unlikely case excluded by a comparison test before use become.

With this solution proposal the unit is to be protected Product, digital product code (according to the state of the art) and By-product to a non-copyable unique.

at a later one exam of the product on authenticity is determined by the relevant auditing authority first the product code for finding the original image of the structure in the corresponding database and finally the comparison after scanning or photographing the subject to be tested Structure for example by means of an image processing software (Prior art) performed.

Finally, the structure was tested positively, ie structure of the by-product to be tested agrees with the archetype, so the instance to be tested can be given a guarantee of authenticity virtually, since the copy of a random structure in a three-dimensional body is almost impossible or can be realized with no reasonable effort.

Around exclude replacement of the by-products or subsequent reuse corresponding product attributes in the respective product code belonging Database to deposit.

A Product unit without product code and or Peiprodukt is automatically under suspicion of forgery.

Claims (1)

Verification system for products, with everyone too verifying product is assigned an by-product, the Beiprodukt according to the prior art not or only with difficulty copying is due to a randomly generated internal structure.