GB2497524A

GB2497524A - Method of anti-fraud protection for commercial products

Info

Publication number: GB2497524A
Application number: GB1121271.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Fabrizio Ferrante
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-12-12
Filing date: 2011-12-12
Publication date: 2013-06-19
Also published as: GB201121271D0

Abstract

A method of anti-fraud protection for commercial products involves creating a database, maintained by a guarantee entity, which may be queried by any consumer. Each record in the database is identified by an alphanumeric code exactly matching the code printed on an individual item on the retail market, and linking each single marketed product with a single record. The alphanumeric code is obtained through either a securely-encrypted algorithm to generate pseudo-random numbers or a device generating random numbers. The fields of each record of the database contain information on the marketed product, trade name, manufacturers name, place of manufacture, instructions for product use, product pictures, guarantee information on individual components, expiry date of product, expiry date of the same alphanumeric code i.e. the latest date the related folder may be queried by consumers for information, and the maximum number of times the alphanumeric code may be verified.

Description

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Method of anti-fraud protection for commercial products This inventR)fl relates to a method of protection for marketed products.

It is widely known that products of any kind are frequently counterfeited and marketed in more or less illegal ways. Such counterfeits are often low-quality products, which may sometimes be mistaken for original quality products through fake packaging, brands and labeling.

In other instances, labels of expired products may be altered with extended use-by dates and the same products may be marketed again by inconsiderate middlemen or retailers.

Therefore, there is a need for a solution to counterfeit and fraud on several product types.

More spccitically, the above issue has arisen with food products, medications and spare parts for airplanes and ships, thus exposing end users to very serious risks.

A solution to this issue should meet two essential needs: a) it should not be alterable by middlemen between manufacturer and consumer; b) it should be inexpensive, so that it may be used to protect food products and medications.

In the past, various methods have been developed for identifying and protecting products in a number of ways. For instance, special labeling

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including radio frequency holograms, REID (Radio Frequency Identification), or other optical recognition methods may be employed, which however are ultimately copied and easily counterfeited.

A few methods for product identification are described in patents USI\ 5,521,815, USI\ 6,076,064 and PCT/US2008/003983. I lowever, such methods require an intermediary to certify the authenticity of the products that were just purchased by accessing a central database, typing the customer's personal details and then issuing a certificate of title to the customer. Such methods are used for specific goods such as works of art, vehicles, boats, airplanes, in order to pervent ally theft or counterfeit.

Obviously; such methods are inadequate for other product types, where it is impossible for a retailer to certify the title of large volumes of products right after they are sold to each customer. Similarly; it would be impractical for any customer to obtain quality certification from an intermediary for everyday shopping Moreover, such solutions do not guarantee full protection: the retailer may be untrustworthy and issue fake certificates of authenticity, or even produce several identical certificates to be used for selling as many fake products. Also, labels may be copied or attached to cloned products, so that an original product may be pLtrchased and its label may be attached to a cloned product or a copycat for selling it as an original.

It should be noted that untrustworthy retailers are the biggest players on the market of counterfeit products.

The system described in this patent application allows to inexpensively protect any ptoduct on the matket. The strong points of this system are: no intermediary needed between manufacturer and consumer; no special technology needed for printing codes; extremely low costs for manufacturer and consumer, high protection expectancy The protection method described in this application is based on establishing a public authority -or a private institution recognized by product manufacturers who wish to safeguard their products. Such public/private entity shall be heretofore referred to as a GE (Guarantee Entity).

GE owns a database where each single record (or n-tuple) is linked to each single marketed product item and indexed with an alphanumeric code which shall be heretofore referred to as PDLC (or pre-defined life code). The fields of each record (or n-tuple) can contain any product-specific information, such as (but not limited to): product name, composition, origin of components, manufacturing specifications, instructions for use, other technical data, product image, plus a nLtmeric parameter knOWn parameter AA Qts function will be explained later in this documenO, the product's expiry date and the latest date for verifying the above details.

At the end of a production cycle, before a product is placed on the market, an accredited manufacturer shall submit to the GH1 a list of the individual product items they wish to protect along with any product-specific information to be specified in the relevant record fields.

For each product item the GE generates a PD] C and/or a relevant barcode and/or a relevant REID (Radio Frequency IdentifIcation) or an ID using any other technology, which may be sent to the manufacturer using any communication technology Qnclucling fax, mail, phone, email, internet applications etc.) or printed on any other media (labels, holographic labels, REID (Radio Frequency Identification) etc.).

Before placing products on the market, the accredited manufacturer will label each of them with a PDLC duly produced by the GE, which may be placed internally or externally printed, hidden or protected with a coat of removable paint or protected with any other technology Thus, every single product item on the market will bear a unique PD] C code that links to a record in the database owned by the GE.

Any consumer pLtrchasing a product labeled with this technology may then query the GE database using the PDLC code found in/on the product using an); communication technology, or submit the PDLC code through any optical reading device, and consult the GE database in order to obtain all the information the accredited manufacturer had previously saved for that individual product.

The PDLC code which specifically links to an individual product item includes parameter AA. Such parameter A\ defines the number of times set by the manufacturer for a product item PDLC code to be queried through the GE by a consumer.

After the number of customer queries specified in parameter AA is reached, the GE database may not be queried anymore for that specific PD] C code, and the GE will respond to the consumer that the maximum number of verifications has been reached.

That way, replicating any PDLC code and placing it for instance on a counterfeit product of the same kind becomes completely useless: the PDLC code may only be verified for a set number of times as specified by the accredited manufacturer.

Similarly, whenever a consumer queries the GE with a PDLC code for a product that is past its expiry date, the GF will return a message of product expired.

Also, whenever a consumer queries the G K with a PDLC code for a product that is past its latest verification date, the GK will return a message of product no longer verifiable.

That largely makes it impossible for PD] £ codes that are left unutilised to be used again on counterfeit products of the same kind. In other words, an unutilised PDLC code becomes unusable after a set time, although before such time the same PDLC may potentially be used for a fake product. A possible strategy would be to boost the verification of PDLCs for example by means of a discount policy after a certain number of verifications, or a lottery connected with stead) verification of PDLCs.

Claims

<claim-text>Claims 1. Method allowing to create a database, maintained by a Guarantee Kntity which may be queried by any consumer, where each record (or n-tuple, where n is the number of fields or elements per record) is identified by an alphanumeric code exactly matching the code printed on an individual item on the retail market, linking each single marketed product with a single record (or n-tuple.</claim-text> <claim-text>2. Method according to claim I where the alphanumeric code is obtained through either a securely-encrypted algorithm allowing to generate pseudo-random numbers or a device generating random numbers or both.</claim-text> <claim-text>3. Method according to claim 1 where the fields of each record (or tuple) of the database contarn information on the marketed product, including but not limited to (where the n elements of n-tuple could be): trade name of the prod uct, manufacturer's name, place of manufacture, place of manufacture of individual components, instructions for product use and/or installation, product pictures, guarantee information on individual components, expiry date of product, expiry date of the same alphanumeric code i.e. the latest date the related folder may be queried by consumers for information, the maximum number of times the alphanumeric code may be verified.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. Method according to claim 1 allowing any consumer to access to the record (n-tuple) linked to the a]phanumeric code found on a product on the retail market, by querying the database of the Guarantee Entity.</claim-text> <claim-text>5. Method according to claim 1 where the database of the Guarantee Entity may be a digital database, installed onto a computer connected to the Internet global network.</claim-text> <claim-text>6. Method according to claim 1, 4, 5 allowing a consumer to query the database using any analog or digital communication system -by mail or phone or through a computer connected to the Internet global network by wired and/or wireless technology or by any mobile connection standard.</claim-text> <claim-text>7. Method according to claim 1, 2 allowing any accredited manufacturer to apply for and obtain such alphanumeric codes generated by the Guarantee entity; for a specified number of product items to be marketed.</claim-text> <claim-text>8. Method according to claim 1, 2, 7 allowing an accredited manufacturer to obtain such codes by phone or mail or e-mail or through a computer connected to the same database via the Internet global network using specific computer software.</claim-text> <claim-text>9. Method according to claim 1, 2, 7, 8 allowing an accredited manufacturer who has obtained such alphanumeric codes to place them on/at/inside/next to single product items before marketing them by any means of printing and/or labeling, be it alphanumeric and/or holographic and/or image transfer and/or barcode and/or wireless and/or protected by removable paint and/or any other consumer-accessible technology, including analog/digital and/or optical technological devices.</claim-text> <claim-text>10. Method according to claim 1, 3 allowing an accredited manufacturer to input -in full or in part -the fields (the n fields) of each record (n-tuple) of the said database pertaining to the product item placed on the market.</claim-text> <claim-text>11.Method according to claim 1, 10 allowing to input the database with any analog, mail-based or digital technology -using a computer connected to the Internet global network -also by accessing the database of the Guarantee Entity using specific computer software.</claim-text> <claim-text>12. Method according to claim 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 allowing a consumer to query a record (n-tuple) contained in the Guarantee Entity database up to a maximum number of times set in the same record, once that maximum limit is reached, the system will respond that the informath)n is no longer available for verification.</claim-text> <claim-text>13. Method according to claim 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 allowing a consumer to query a record n-tuple) contained in the Guarantee Entity database until the product expiry date, specified in the same record, if a query is made past that date, the system will respond that the product has expired.</claim-text> <claim-text>14.Method according to claim 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 allowing to feed back to the consumer the information contained in a record n-tuple of the Guarantee Entity database, provided the consumer query is macic before the latest verification date for that folder, set in the same record n-tuple), if a query is made past that date, the system will respond that the code for that product has expired.</claim-text> <claim-text>15. Method according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, II), 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 allowing to exchange all the information between Guarantee Entity database, accredited manufacturer and consLimer by means of specific software applications created for use on mobile computers and/or phones and/or computers connected to the Internet global network.</claim-text>