The fight against counterfeiting — Authentication and traceability

This TR980 V2 article is a major update of the original document published in 2006.

The redesign was necessary for two main reasons:

• the lapse of the AC Z60-100 agreement, which has not been implemented;

• the arrival of the ISO 12931 standard on performance criteria for anti-counterfeiting solutions .

Work has also been carried out by the National Anti-Counterfeiting Committee .

Product counterfeiting in the field of intellectual property law is a scourge that is spreading to many sectors of the economy, increasingly jeopardizing consumer health and safety. In addition to what is already being done to monitor the global market and strengthen the repressive arsenal, a strategy of prevention and deterrence based on technical means to combat counterfeiting must facilitate border controls, become a judicial support tool for the demonstration of proof, and enable a process of reorganization of contractual relations between rights holders, public authorities and distributors-suppliers.

To combat this scourge, companies are increasingly using authentication solutions tailored to their needs. The aim is to generate confidence among consumers, reinforce the security of the distribution chain, and help public authorities design and implement preventive, dissuasive and repressive policies.

Protecting the health and safety of consumers, patients and even citizens from counterfeit products that generally lack the expected characteristics is an imperative.

Counterfeiting is legally an infringement of property rights. Copying what is not protected by property rights is therefore not, except in special cases, an infringement. Knowing how to distinguish the real from the fake, independently of property rights, is also the role of protection technologies. Legal and technical aspects are complementary in a protection strategy.