Counterfeiting or falsifying products is a global problem that makes many manufacturers suffer. It is not only common for food and non-food, soft drinks, perfumes and pharmaceutical products to the fast moving consumer goods and the automotive industry. Counterfeiting is not just an Asian issue, Europeans can also play this game. It is estimated that more than ten percent of all products are counterfeits, which constitutes a global loss between 200 and 300 billion euro each year. Enough reason to take serious efforts to protect your products against counterfeiting. A leading security company in France works with manufacturers with the help of Dino-Lite digital microscopes and proprietary software that was adapted with the Dino-Lite Software Development Kit (SDK).
This process allows manufacturers to apply an authenticity feature to their products. Their product manager explains: "This can be a code with a dot matrix, but it can also be engraved or even stuck in the cap of a product. This code tells us everything about the product and allows us to see if it's a real product, a forgery or a so-called gray product, the origin of which is not immediately obvious. You can imagine that counterfeit drugs are dangerous and can even be lethal. More than enough reason for the creation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, known as ACTA.
"We are using Dino-Lite to read and recognize the codes with our own software. With the Software Development Kit (SDK), supplied by Dino-Lite, we have adjusted our own software to work with Dino-Lite and all its features. On behalf of our clients we do worldwide research into product authenticity. Our people go in the field with a Dino-Lite, linked to a laptop where that runs our software. By 'scanning' the product, we can quickly determine whether something is genuine or counterfeit. Based on our findings, the producer can then take action, as counterfeiting is still a criminal offense."
At present this company uses approximately thirty Dino-Lites. But it is expected that this number will increase rapidly because of the ease of use and the modest size of the Dino-Lite.
