Damaging the brand image, reaching a global estimated value of US $1.82 Trillion,
hurting basic human safety and health – what is it that counterfeiting
can’t do?
Well, it surely cannot be ignored. It is estimated that each year, deaths caused
by counterfeit products among the G20 economies bear an economic cost of
over $18 billion U.S. dollars, with an additional $125 million
dollars spent on treating counterfeit product-related injuries. The health and
safety threat posed by counterfeit products is real. It is particularly worrying
that these parts appear to easily find their way into the supply chain of
industries, products of which are in daily use worldwide.
Healthcare industry: According to the WHO estimations, 50% of the drugs for sale on the Internet are fake. Especially now, when criminals are trying to cash in on the coronavirus – according to Interpol, the authorities seized around 4.4 million units of illicit pharmaceuticals worldwide. In 2010 WHO reported 8% of all the medical devices in the market to be fake(the actual volume is expected to be even higher). Today, EU conformity certificates aren’t safe either, according to OLAF millions of substandard medical products have been caught in multiple Member States. This just makes the point stronger that the problem cannot be ignored.
According to Fujitsu, the most common counterfeited automotive parts are brake shoes, brake pads, steering linkages, air filters, spark plugs, wipers, airbags, other interior accessories. Moreover, businesses in the sector are continuously being penalized for illegally marketing and selling refrigerant hydrocarbon products (i.e., ES 22a as a replacement for R-22), as well. According to the EPA, the use of ES 22a – a refrigerant meant for window air conditioning units – creates the potential for explosion and fires, it is a serious risk to human health and the environment. Safety is definitely compromised with the low quality of such fakes.
Aerospace and defense products are generally designed to serve in longer life cycles than most similar productions(i.e. automotive). The B-52 aircraft, for example, has an anticipated retirement date as 2040, even though it is in service since February 1955: Therefore, sometimes to service aerospace and defense products, there are used parts that may no longer be available (authorized aftermarket manufacturer, distributors or resellers no longer hold those parts). This creates a rabbit hole, from which the counterfeiter takes advantage of. Surely, it is not as widely spread as for example, counterfeiting in the industry of clothing, but the human safety tall is much higher.
Not only does counterfeiting include health risks, but also it contains
severe economic damage from end-users all the way to the whole industry. The
ICC, for example, has estimated the global economic value of counterfeiting to
reach $4.2 trillion and put
5.4 million jobs at risk by 2022.
The intellectual property, of course, is known as one of the main targets of the
counterfeiters – the high-end luxury goods market came up to US$ 236 billion
in 2009. The steady market growth over the last 20 years, no direct harm to
health, and of course the growth of counterfeiting solutions – makes it
easier and easier to fake the luxury goods, stretching the annual loss from
these products to US$ 12 billion.
For centuries there have been various regulations set in the justice systems of different local and global economic territories in the world to fight counterfeit. The private sector, too, tried to get one step ahead by coming up with different anti-counterfeiting technologies and innovative solutions throughout the years. Most of those technologies, unfortunately, have become outdated or outsmarted in 2020:
The market is exigent on an innovative solution that would include the benefits the current technologies give, at the same time solving the shortcomings of those.
Combination of multiple MicroWire sensors of arbitrary quantity, lengths, order, and metallic composition, diameters which creates a Matrix of independent unique codes, thus, the hardware is fundamentally impossible to copy or hack. In other words, the ID tags are completely unique subjects,
In terms of software, the storage of the codes involves a blockchain technology that is responsible for the software security.
The fight against counterfeit products is a global challenge with companies across industries implementing tools to create a robust supply chain. Yet, everyday counterfeit goods worth millions of dollars enter the supply chain and reach. This not only leads to risking basic human safety and loss of revenue, but it also ends up hurting the brand image from stealing intellectual property. Our goal is to ensure end-user safety and help our clients fight counterfeit effectively.