Products are created by brand owners and handed to third parties (contract manufacturer, shipping company, distributor…) for delivery to merchants for later sale to consumers. These products can range from commodity items (e.g., flour) to limited quantity “luxury” items (e.g., designer handbags) to one-of-a-kind items (e.g., original artwork). Counterfeit products are often created and sold as the “real thing.” Counterfeits leverage the original brand but generally have less overhead due to some combination of lower quality, reduced marketing expenses, reduced support costs and/or reduced corporate expenses (ranging from lower labor costs to failure to pay tariffs). The three main parties (brand owner, merchant and consumer) are affected differently by the distribution of counterfeits. Consumers either willingly purchase counterfeits at a lower cost or are tricked into buying a counterfeit thinking they are getting authentic merchandise. In the former case they are generally happy, at least initially. The latter case, in some instances, may have little effect, i.e., the consumer may have overpaid for an item. However, more damaging effects may be realized if the product malfunctions. These effects can range from lack of recourse (since the product is not covered by the warranty of the brand owner or manufacturer) to physical harm in the case of food, prescription drugs, mechanical equipment, etc. Merchants and third parties may unknowingly or willingly participate in the distribution of counterfeit products. Brand owners suffer both hard (decreased profit) and soft (brand erosion) losses from counterfeit products. This research work describes a system that enables brand owners, merchants and consumers to verify the authenticity of a product. It analyzes the different avenues of attack and presents three potential implementations of the system based upon the motivation of the participants and the cost of implementation. The research assumes the reader is acquainted with the production and distribution of counterfeit products.
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