Brand protection is an increasingly important topic today; counterfeiters not only steal enormous profits from certain companies, but they force them to invest in new brand protection solutions. The dollars add up quickly. According to a bureau of the US Department of Homeland Security, $720 billion is lost annually because of pirated or counterfeited goods.

Maintaining Brand Protection Is Difficult

Every time a company makes an improvement in brand protection, a pirate finds a way around it. Fortune 500 companies spend two to four million dollars each year to combat the problem, but it's not a one-time fix; it is a constant fight. One way to address the problem is by tracking goods when they are at the most vulnerable stage: in transit.

Cargo travels through many locations after it is produced and before it reaches its final destination. Theft or counterfeiting can occur anywhere along the supply chain; without a definitive way of authenticating goods or merchandise, pirated goods can easily replace the real product. If no one can readily tell the difference, pirates can sell the lesser quality merchandise as if it were the legitimate thing.

One solution is by tracking and verifying the delivery of authentic goods. Smart labels that reveal tampering, invisible markers, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and magnetic threads are some of the tools used to verify that real products--and not counterfeits--have been delivered. As pirates get more sophisticated, so does the technology that thwarts their attempts at passing off illegitimate merchandise as genuine.