YPB signs third commercial trial for MotifMicro1

Australian anticounterfeit specialist YPB has signed a third commercial trial of its MotifMicro1 (MM1) authentication technology, this time with Israeli company Latent Image Technology.

LIT is a supplier of overt and covert authentication and anti-counterfeit solutions to government, pharma, document security, fashion and automotive customers in numerous geographies around the worlds. For example, it currently supplies document security materials to the Philippine government’s tax stamp programme.

YPB acquired the MotifMicro platform – which is based on a proprietary covert tracer based on rare earth elements – when it bought its eponymous developer back in 2015 in a $7m deal. The company describes it as a forensic anti-counterfeit system readable by an unmodified smartphone.

Under the latest commercial trial, LIT will pay for MM1 material "to run print trials for ultra-high-volume clients," said YPB in a statement, which acknowledged that revenue generated during the pilot will only be around A$5,000 (around $3,500).

It added however that these trials are a key element of its monetisation strategy for MM1 "as they confirm genuine interest from potential partners en route to full commercial contracts." Prior trials have been agreed with packager Opal in Australia and Malaysia's Holographic Label.