News in Brief

Digimarc to Strengthen Product ID with Purchase of EVRYTHNG

Digital watermarking specialist Digimarc has entered into an agreement to acquire EVRYTHNG, developers of the Product Cloud platform which links every product item to its Active Digital Identity™ on the web and joins-up product data across the value chain for visibility, validation, real time intelligence, and connection with people.

The firm's technology, which is used by businesses to get greater insight and control over their products, effectively provides a cloud-based digital twin for any physical item that can be used to record its journey through its lifecycle.

Digimarc is a pioneer and leader in digital watermarking solutions and the automatic identification of media, including packaging, commercial print, and digital images.

EVRYTHNG has been in partnership with Digimarc for the last five years, with some clients already using Digimarc’s covert identification platform alongside Product Cloud.

The combined company will focus its efforts initially around anti-counterfeiting based on packaging features, online brand protection and recycling, as well as product cloud development.

New Partnership Tackles Fake Pharma and Charity Diversion

Switzerland's OriginAll and Partisia Blockchain have joined forces to develop a blockchain-powered system to tackle the twin issues of medicines falsification and diversion of charitable donations.

The two companies are working on a system that will combine unique identifiers (UIDs) on medicine packs with digital tokens – known as Healthies – that, they say, will help to ensure ‘equitable access to safe, verifiable medicines and healthcare products.’

The use of the system means that organisations that donate to charities that provide medicinal products have a way to ensure that their funds can only be used to purchase genuine medicines. The blockchain element of the system means that private data about the transactions can be kept confidential.

The Healthies tokens are intended both for large-scale organisations and for individual users, for example those who want to send remittances to their families.

Essentra Set to Sell off Packaging Business

UK firm Essetnra has confirmed that it is has begun a strategic review of its Packaging division, with a view to selling it and exiting the packaging market.

The division, which specialises in secondary packaging for the pharma and healthcare industries, among others, produces cartons, leaflets, self-adhesive labels and printed foils used for blister packs.

It also has a photo ID card business, and produces security tear tapes and shrink sleeves, holograms and tamper evident labels, along with authentication technologies including proprietary colour shift inks and taggants. With sales of £363 million, it is the largest business unit within the £897 million turnover parent company.

Essentra, formerly known as Filtrona, has invested heavily over the past decade in acquiring specialist packaging companies and developing new brand protection technologies, but some of the former have provided problematic. Sales last year were down by 6% and it made an operating loss of £9 million.

Essentra is also carrying out a review of its filtration business. Both reviews are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2022, and may or may not result in the sale or spin-off of the divisions.

New Partnership for MASS and iTRACE

Manufacturing Automation & Software Systems (MASS Group) and iTRACE Technologies, a provider of supply chain security applications, have announced a partnership to deliver end to end traceability of products and assets with enhanced security and visibility.

iTRACE’s core technology platform for helping global brands fight counterfeiting, diversion and production overruns of their production is 2DMI®. It is based on encrypted micro-marks at near nano size and a track and trace system that provides easy integration into SAP or other warehouse and inventory management systems, and can be added as a layer with other technologies that tie direct product marking to packaging, case and pallet.

It will be integrated with MASS Group’s Traceability Made Easy® (TME®), a webbased software solution that enables customers to run applications including asset management, asset tracking and genealogy, inventory/warehouse/spare parts management, maintenance and work order management, MES/MOM and quality management from one integrated suite.

According to both companies, ‘the integration of iTRACE 2DMI® with TME® creates a full suite of security and visibility applications for today's supply chain that are easy to deploy and manage. Companies will now be able to effectively identify and prevent production overruns, grey market trading or diversion and fight counterfeit and warranty fraud of their products.’

New Family of Optical Features from OpSec

OpSec Security has launched OpSec® SuRe, a new family of surface relief effects for security and brand protection applications that provide striking Level 1 features.

According to the company, OpSec® SuRe leverages cutting edge optical technologies that appear three dimensional and offer high security performance, without compromising the integrity of the document or product.

Created with (patent pending) proprietary technology, the graphic imagery is visible in all lighting conditions and is simple for the public to recognise and verify. Distinctly different to a hologram and more easily viewable in any lighting, OpSec® SuRe can be easily integrated with any of OpSec’s existing coloured and dynamic features.

OpSec® Cameo is the first in a series of forthcoming products within the OpSec® SuRe family. Cameo creates the visual illusion of a three-dimensional bas relief sculpture that appears raised and sculpted or moulded on the surface with a depth of several millimetres. Cameo imagery can be integrated with multiple holographic techniques from OpSec to produce designs with varying levels of security for overt public, covert inspector, and forensic investigator level verification.

The OpSec® SuRe range is targeted at banknotes, brand protection programs, identity solutions, security documents, tax stamps, and other high security applications.