Abstract:
A counterfeit detection method includes electronically reading a label on a desired item in a store, transmitting an item identification code encoded in the read label to an authentication unit, receiving an indication from the authentication unit whether or not the item identification code is registered to the store and if the indication is positive, generating a certificate of authenticity for the desired item.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to anti-counterfeit tracking devices generally. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Every year, the retail industry loses money to the production of counterfeit designer products. Counterfeit items are often very hard to reveal, as they are copied so well it is often difficult to tell the difference between the copy and an original. Many tools and techniques have been proposed to protect against counterfeiting, including difficult to copy labels and hidden signs on the actual product. These techniques have not been extremely successful, however, because counterfeiters are extremely skillful in copying even difficult labels, and hidden signs in the product are hidden so well that they become inaccessible. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation, together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following detailed description when read with the accompanying drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of a counterfeit tracking method, operative in accordance with the present invention; and 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a counterfeit tracking system implementing the method of  FIG. 1 . 
   

   It may be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. 
   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention. 
   The present invention is a counterfeit detection method that attempts to address the two main problems, discussed in the Background, with current anti-counterfeit systems. Reference is now made to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , which respectively illustrate a counterfeit detection method, operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and a system  8  for implementing it. System  8  comprises a third party authority for counterfeit detection  10 , which may be similar to a credit-card verification bureau, a code reader  40 A at a manufacturer  12 , a code reader  40 B at a distributor  22 , and a point of service (POS) unit  42 , which may be located at a retailer  24  and which may comprise a code reader  40 C. 
   In the present invention, manufacturer  12  may produce a series  14  of items  16 . Each item  16  may be assigned unique article number (UAN)  18 . During the course of production UAN  18  may be encoded and printed on a label attached to item  16 . The label typically may be clearly visible to anyone viewing the item. 
   UAN  18  may be encoded in any suitable form. In the exemplary embodiment of  FIG. 2 , for example, UAN  18  is shown encoded in a two-dimensional bar code  38  and code readers  40 A– 40 C are shown as bar code readers. Barcode  38  may be read by any of code readers  40 A–C located at manufacturer  12 , distributor  22  and retailer  24 , respectively. Code readers  40  may be any type of code reader. 
   The following discussion will describe the present invention using a bar code encoding process. However, it will be appreciated that UAN  18  may be encoded using many different types of encoding processes, such as the following non-limiting examples: a one dimensional bar code, a two-dimensional bar code, an RFID tag to be read with an RFID reader or a magnetic stripe. A magnetic stripe may be readable by current credit card readers. Alternatively, UAN  18  may be printed as a number, with no encoding. The latter may be readable using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. 
   In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, entities involved in the process of bringing authentic items  16  for sale to end customers may register ownership of authentic items  16  with authority  10 . The end customer may then utilize POS unit  42  to verify that a desired item is indeed authentic and registered to the entity from which the end customer either intends to buy or has already bought. 
   The process may operate as follows: Manufacturer  12  may register (step  20 ) a series  14  of manufactured items  16  with authority  10 . In the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , this is done by scanning bar codes  38  through code reader  40 A and sending the decoded UAN information to authority  10 . 
   Alternatively, manufacturer  12  may not be required to scan every item  16  in series  14 . Because UANs  18  may be a batch of consecutive serial numbers, manufacturer  12  may simply scan bar code  38 A of the first item  16 A in series  14  and bar code  38 B of the last item  16 B in series  14 . If series  14  contains 10,000 items, for example, code reader  40 A at manufacturer  12  may scan bar codes  38 A of item number 10,001 and bar code  38 B of item number 20,000. Authority  10  may understand this to mean 10,000 items should be registered to manufacturer  12 , and may register the UANs  18  of the entire series  14  of 10,000 items as being owned by distributor  22 . 
   Further alternatively, manufacturer  12  may not bother to scan the UANs  18  at all. Since manufacturer  12  may provide UANs  18  to items  16  and since manufacturer  12  may decide which items to ship to which distributors, manufacturer  12  may send a listing of the items in series  14  directly to authority  10  without scanning the items first. 
   Manufacturer  12  may then ship series  14  of items  16  to distributor  22 . Distributor  22  may then ship a batch  15  from series  14  that it received from manufacturer  12  to retailer  24 . 
   Distributor  22  may then notify authority  10  that it has shipped batch  15  of items  16  to retailer  24  and authority  10  may update (step  36 ) its registry accordingly. This may be done by having code reader  40 B, attached to distributor  22 , scan bar code  38 C and bar code  38 D, attached to the first and last serially numbered items in batch  15 , or by directly providing a listing without scanning. The entire batch  15  of items  16  may now be registered in authority  10  as available for sale by retailer  24  only. 
   This may be done a multiplicity of times, as distributor  22  may apportion series  14  into many batches, to be distributed to a multiplicity of retailers. At each stage of shipment and distribution of products, authority  10  may verify that distributor  22  is entitled to perform the shipment, and that the items  16  in the shipment are not counterfeit. 
   At the time of purchase, code reader  40 C attached to retailer  24  may read bar code  38 E on the label of item  16 . When a customer  26  wishes to purchase an item, say item  16 E, customer  26  may scan bar code  38 E on item  16 E with bar code reader  40 C, a portion of POS unit  42 . POS unit  42  may send a query  30  to authority  10  requesting a verification of whether or not item  16 E is original, and available for sale by retailer  24 . Authority  10  may then check its records, according to the flow of data it has received. If the records so indicate, authority  10  may then send (step  32 ) a verification to POS  42 , verifying that item  16  is a non-counterfeit original, and is available for sale by retailer  24 . 
   Customer  26  may view query  30  and verification  32  at POS unit  42 , so that customer  26  may be assured that item  16 E is an original. Additionally, a printed certificate of authenticity may be printed out for customer  26  by POS  42 , so that proof of authenticity may be retained. The proof of authenticity may be on the sales receipt or on a separate printout. 
   Once the sale has been consummated, POS  42  may indicate so to authority  10  and authority  10  may update its records, indicating that item  16 E is no longer for sale. If customer  26  returns item  16 E, POS  42  or another code reader  40  may update authority  10  that item  16 E is once again for sale. 
   Customer  26  may also directly connect to authority  10  to verify that item  16 E is authentic. Authority  10  may ask for sales data (such as UAN  18 ) listed on a sales receipt and may provide verification therefrom. 
   It may appreciated that all tracking of details, verifications and proving of authenticity is done by authority  10 , which may be a third-party authority, and all communications may be done through a secure, electronic method. In one embodiment, there is a network connection between each code reader  40  and authority  10 . The network may be any suitable network, such as a wired network, the Internet, a satellite network, etc. 
   It will be appreciated that, with the present invention, a counterfeit item may still be made. In fact, the labels on which the UAN  18  (in whatever form it may be encoded) are placed may be easy to reproduce. However, even if a counterfeiter successfully reproduces a label, he may still be caught since the copied UAN  18  will not be registered with authority  10  and thus, the counterfeit item will not receive a certificate of authenticity. 
   Authority  10  may be any type of system, such as a database or other storage device, which stores records for each item registered with it. Each record may comprise UAN  18 , its current ‘owner’ and a flag indicating whether or not the item has been sold to customer  26 . Authority  10  may operate similarly to a credit card verification bureau in that it may verify data in its system. However, authority  10  may also update its information, as the items registered to it are transferred from one owner to another. 
   It will be appreciated that authority  10  may provide a method of registering or transferring ownership of goods, parallel to the physical transfer of goods from one owner to the next. Since communication with authority  10  may be along electronically secure channels (or generally secure channels), the electronic transfer of ownership may be secure. This may help to make the physical transfer of ownership also secure, since the proof of ownership may reside in authority  10  and not in any physical bills of transfer. 
   Moreover, proof of ownership may be produced at any time and not just by POS unit  42 . The latter may be operative to provide proof of ownership to customer  26 . However, authority  10  may be able to provide proofs of ownership to the current owner of an item or group of items  16 . 
   The units at manufacturer  12  and distributor  22  may comprise bar code reader  40  and an item identification communicator unit  46 . Bar code reader  40  may read bar codes  38 . Unit  46  may, at least, analyze and decode scanned bar code  38 , may generate the associated UAN  18  and may communicate with authority  10  indicating that UAN  18  is to be transferred from it to a new owner. 
   POS unit  42  may be any suitable unit. Like the units at manufacturer  12  and distributor  22 , it may comprise bar code reader  40 C and another unit. However, for POS unit  42 , the extra unit is a verifier  44  which, in addition to the communication activities of communicator units  46 , may also communicate with authority  10  indicating that UAN  18  was read at its store and if certification is received, may print such a certificate. 
   In another example, POS unit  42  may be based on a SureMark TI-8 point of sale unit, commercially available from International Business Machines, Inc. The SureMark TI-8 handles many aspects of a sale, such as printing a receipt, scanning a check electronically, etc. The SureMark TI-8 may be modified in the present invention to scan a label having bar code  38  on it (which may be detachable), to analyze and decode bar code  38 , to generate associated UAN  18 , to communicate with authority  10  indicating that UAN  18  was read at its store, to receive certification of authenticity and, if such certification is received, to print such a certificate. 
   While certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents may now occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.