ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 31 -- Kodak’s new anticounterfeiting solution is the real thing, according to the PIA/GATF, the world’s largest graphic arts trade organization, which has awarded its prestigious InterTech Technology Award to the KODAK TRACELESS System for Anticounterfeiting. Established in 1978, the InterTech Technology Awards recognize excellence in innovative technology for the graphic communications industry.
The TRACELESS System is a forensically invisible authentication technology that deploys a combination of proprietary markers and handheld readers that allows customers to easily validate the authenticity of an item in the field or in distribution channels. The TRACELESS System creates items with unique material properties that can only be detected using Kodak’s reading technologies.
“Receiving a PIA/GATF InterTech Technology Award for the TRACELESS System validates Kodak’s approach to product security and the technology behind this robust anticounterfeiting solution,” said Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “Our customers and the InterTech judges recognize that the TRACELESS System is an easy to implement yet highly effective way to fight back against the threat of counterfeiting to brands and consumers.”
The TRACELESS System marker materials can be mixed with inks, toners, varnishes, and other items for analog and KODAK digital printing applications, as well as paper pulp, plastics, powders, pigments, liquids and textiles. The KODAK System’s markers have no effect on the characteristics of the end products or packaging. Users license the KODAK technology under multiyear agreements, and have secure control of the markers, the readers and associated software. This system prevents counterfeiters from duplicating the products or their packaging.
Targeting everything from currency to product safety labels, Kodak’s technology can help diminish counterfeiting, which touches virtually every industry and market. Counterfeiters have access to technologies that can be as good as those used by authentic producers and, according to law enforcement and business trade groups, they are using them to defraud consumers, businesses and governments worldwide on an unprecedented scale.
“The KODAK TRACELESS System meets several critical needs,” explained Steve Powell, General Manager and Director, Security Solutions, Kodak. “It’s easy to implement, virtually impossible to reverse engineer, and affordable for mass implementation. We can customize our security solutions to fit a customer’s needs and we can do it quickly. The time is now for companies to take a stand and protect their brands and relationships with their customers.”
Kodak is already working with customers in a wide range of industries that are affected by counterfeiting, including pharmaceuticals, apparel, cosmetics, identification documents and premium wineries. For more information about the TRACELESS System visit www.kodak.com/go/traceless.
The KODAK Security Solutions portfolio has applications for an even wider range of markets and industries that are being harmed by counterfeiting, such as financial documents and tax stamps, ticketing for lotteries and special events, pharmaceutical packaging, food and beverages, luxury goods, prescription pads and vital records.