KODAK TRACELESS AD System for Antidiversion Protects Brands' Distribution Channels and Revenue from Gray Market Activity
 
ROCHESTER, N.Y., - Kodak announces the KODAK TRACELESS AD System for Antidiversion, a proprietary solution for manufacturers to defend against gray market activities, reported by Deloitte LLP to cost businesses billions of dollars in revenue each year. The TRACELESS AD System combines an invisible ink and proprietary detection system to help brands track products and prevent the creation of illegitimate distribution channels and unauthorized resellers.

Kodak's Security Solutions product experts will demonstrate TRACELESS AD System at industry events, IQPC Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection Conference in New York, Sept. 26-28, PACK EXPO in Las Vegas, Sept. 26-28 and Labelexpo in Brussels, Sept. 28-Oct.1.

"Gray market activities disrupt manufacturers' distribution channels and create artificially lowered prices, supply chain demand issues and unauthorized sales," said Dr. Myra T. Olm, Director, Brand Protection Research and Product Development, Security Solutions, Kodak's Business Solutions and Services Group. "These practices dilute the marketplace with fraudulent resellers and distributors that erode profit margins."

Kodak's TRACELESS AD System can be implemented for a variety of applications, including pharmaceuticals, consumer and industrial goods, labels and packaging and secure documents. TRACELESS AD System uses an invisible ink, formulated for most major solvent-based continuous inkjet printers. Once applied, the ink has a long, stable shelf life to ensure that the invisible code remains on the product.

"The TRACELESS AD System enables manufacturers to aggressively block gray market activity through an invisible and highly protected system," said Olm. "Simply put, diverters cannot remove what they cannot see or find."

Codes and markings are made visible only with Kodak's proprietary viewers, readers or scanners. The system reveals specific alpha-numeric codes, barcodes and data-matrix codes chosen by the manufacturer. The special markings are not visible under any type of ultraviolet (UV) or visible illumination.

The TRACELESS AD System can be independently employed or used with visible serial numbers or codes and integrated into existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or warehouse management (WMS) systems to enable track and trace capabilities. Manufacturers can also bring brand protection in-house by allowing end-of-line serialization on existing production lines. Read more about Kodak's Security Solutions Products and the TRACELESS AD System here. http://graphics.kodak.com/US/en/Product/Security_Authentication/Applications/Grey_Market/default.htm