GM patents security label technology

, 07-Mar-2016

Patent file General Motors' subsidiary GM Global Technology has been granted a US patent on what it describes as an improved security label.

The patent describes a label with multiple security layers, including a pattern of dots that provides a unique identifier - disguised as an imperfection on a printed label - and also includes raised dots at a specific location that can be used to verify the label by touch.

Counterfeiters who seek to copy labels will overlook or remove the motif, law enforcement personnel or other investigators "can be trained to carefully examine a suspected counterfeit and to look for the presence or absence of the small dots."

The full text of the patent appears below:

Counterfeit-resistant labels and method

Abstract: Improved product labels cannot be easily counterfeited. A plurality of small dots printed on the label are interpreted as dirt or flaw or misprint so that the counterfeit label will not reproduce the plurality of small dots. A first image printed on the label and having a first level of spectral reflectivity, and a second image printed atop the first image using ink having a spectral reflectivity different from the spectral reflectivity of the first image. A plurality of very small dots creates a grayscale field, and a symbol printed within the grayscale field of very small dots, thereby creating a watermark of such high complexity that it cannot be counterfeited. A symbol printed on the label, and a raised dot of ink printed atop the symbol at a precise location to be sensed by finger contact and thereby indicate the authenticity of the label.

No. 9,248,673