Patent watch: Dainippon takes group approach to taggants

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.