UNIVERSITY OF BAYREUTH, BAYREUTH, GERMANY. It is a trademark label that is used to avoid product piracy. It consists of a periodic, three-dimensional surface structure. The individual structure is invisible to the naked eye making it unforgeable. Also, it has low production cost compared to holograms and RFID tags.

In 2007, a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development stated that at least 10% of the world’s global trading volume is affected by forgery. This resulted to damages amounting to $200-$300 billion on a yearly basis. The invention of an unforgeable trademark label was encouraged to replace bar codes or Data Matrix-Codes that can be easily forged.

The invention is an unforgeable trademark label from the University of Bayreuth that can be used against product piracy. The periodicity of the new invention is between a few hundreds of nanometers and hundreds of microns. Thus, the structure is invisible to the naked eye. In this way, it becomes unforgeable and can compete with holograms or RFID tags. Its advantages are that it has a low production cost and can be produced in large volumes.

The invention can also be used as a label for identifying valuable goods. It has a three-dimensional surface structure. The regular shape flaws in the surface structure can be formed in such a way that they look like human fingerprints. The label can be observed and can be identified by scanners.

The size of this unforgeable safety label can be customized. Every label is flexible, unique and conforms to the regulations of the FDA. When compared with holograms and RFID tags, this new invention is cost-effective since they are produced from affordable raw materials. Also, it is not affected by any regulations when it comes to immense large-scale production needs.

The invention is suitable for surfaces like paper, metal and polymers. The label can be attached as a flexible sticker. Its surface is scratch-resistant and can be identified even it incurred damages. This label requires low investment since the production process and the production space requirement is small.