Patent watch: Dainippon takes group approach to taggants

Phil Taylor, 14-Sep-2015

Patent file Japan's Dainippon Printing Co has been awarded a US patent covering the use of tracer particles in inks, toner and other media that it claims are harder to counterfeit.

The invention relies on the use of groups of taggant particles which share a common but undisclosed property - such as colour, shape or size for example - that can be used for identification. Each taggant can be identified in a number of ways, some common and some unique, and this helps to mask which specific property is being used to authenticate the protected item.

The system introduces a considerable degree of variation that deters reverse engineering, while the complexity of manufacturing the taggants also deters forgeries. The marked items can be authenticated by simply viewing them under magnification, according to the patent.

Taggant particle group; and anti-counterfeit ink, anti-counterfeit toner, anti-counterfeit sheet, and anti-counterfeit medium comprising same

Abstract: A main object of the invention is to provide a taggant particle group that has a plurality of authentication steps and an excellent anti-counterfeit effect and can be applied to various anti-counterfeit media. The invention attains the object by providing a taggant particle group which is an aggregate of taggant particles which individually have a plurality of identification information items, wherein one identification information item among the plurality of identification information items possessed by the individual particles is common identification information that is possessed in common by the taggant particles that constitute the taggant particle group, and another identification information item among the plurality of identification information items possessed by the individual particles is non-common identification information of which the authenticity can be determined in combination with other identification information items possessed by other taggant particles that constitute the taggant particle group.

For the full patent text see: US Patent No. 9,127,181

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