The global market for anti-counterfeit packaging is projected to grow from $117.2 billion in 2021 to reach $211.3 billion by 2026, at an estimated CAGR of more than 12 percent. The market growth is driven by factors such as rise in counterfeiting of products, increasing brand awareness amongst the consumers, risk of damage to reputation of the brand, the rapid growth of online sales and the developments in printing technologies. There are numerous technologies available in market in the form of overt, covert, forensic, track & trace and RFID/NFC, but these technologies are either too expensive or do not empower the end customer to check authenticity of the product. These major drawbacks in these technologies enable the counterfeiters to reproduce the tags of the original brands, leading to counterfeiting.
Checko – an IIT Kanpur spinoff believes that any anticounterfeit technology should be overt in nature (some kind of visible features), non-clonable (one which cannot be copied) and easy to check by the end users. Checko tags use all these aspects of the technology. It is clearly visible to the naked eye; it uses a different patented ink which when printed gives a unique 3D pattern for every tag. This cannot be replicated and provides the end user means to verify the genuineness of the product by scanning the tag through an app. The app is available in both Android and iOS versions. The QR code and the random 3D pattern in each tag are synced-up, which enables a very quick scan in a matter of few seconds.
Standing Apart Checko is the brainchild of a team of academicians with vast years of R&D experience at National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE), Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur IITK) which spearheads development of electronics products that are flexible, bendable and can be printed like newspapers. The centre was set-up with the aim of doing research and development in the area of flexible electronics as a foundation stone for development of domestic industry under the vision of ‘Make In India’. The centre is one of the few Centres in the globe with focus on anti-counterfeiting research.
The Co-founder of the company is Prof. Deepak Gupta (IIT Kanpur and UC Berkeley Alumni) who has large number of patents in his name including this anti – counterfeit technology. He is an acknowledged expert in Organic Electronics, OLED/PLED, Displays, TFTs & Materials development. This is backed with strong teams in software development and printing technologists. The technology used by Checko drew inspiration from the ways we identify human beings and also from the cracks in the farmland during summer.
Each Checko tag is made using an intertwining of randomly generated 3D features and 2D codes. This 3D features are generated using a patented technology that makes them physically unclonable
The only way to differentiate one human being from the other is through their fingerprints and iris scan (pretty much what Aadhar has done in India). No two human beings can have the same fingerprints and iris scans. Also, when open farmland cracks in the summer, it would throw random cracks which are again unique in nature. These two elements inspired the company and it started working in developing a technology using these two parameters for anti-counterfeit and realized that what is needed is to develop a unique id for each tag which cannot be even reproduced by the company. “Each Checko tag is made using an intertwining of randomly generated 3D features and 2D codes. These 3D features are generated using a patented technology that makes them physically unclonable”, says Satish Chandra, Co-Founder & Director, Checko.
The Future
Counterfeit products are growing significantly in India and other emerging economies. Checko sees significant usage in industries like agro-based, pharmaceutical, liquor, and lubricants, amongst others. “We also think there is a huge market in the tax stamp (excise) industry which could help regulators in reducing revenue leakages. In fact, we are currently doing a project with one of the States in India in this regard”, concludes Prof. Deepak.
We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Read more...
