Method for the unique and captive marking and identification of a soft seal material or soft seal semi-finished product, as well as a seal produced therefrom, based on a product formulation and data of a characterization of raw material components of the product formulation, which consists of quantity of a plurality of sealing-functional raw material components, without adding indicators or tracers foreign to the formulation, wherein the product formulation for each of the raw material components has a certain quantity tolerance within which the product has its desired sealing properties, comprising: (a) qualitative and quantitative characterization of the raw material components, in particular with respect to their elementary composition, and allocation of the data obtained by the characterization; (b) qualitative and quantitative selection and combination of the raw material components according to the product formulation, wherein by variation of the quantities of at least one raw material component of the product formulation, a product signal formulation with a unique spectral signal or fingerprint of the product is determined on the basis of the allocated data of the characterization of the raw material components and depositing the unique spectral signal in a database, wherein the uniqueness of the spectral signal is ensured by comparison with spectral signals of already existing products of the database and by variation of the quantity of the at least one raw material component of the product formulation within the quantity tolerances of the at least one raw material component; and (c) producing the product with the unique spectral signal from the raw material components according to the product signal formulation, wherein the raw material components comprise components selected from the group consisting of elastomers, quartz, mica, silica, kaolin, silica acid, barium sulfate, wollastonite, barite, diatomene, talc, boron nitride, metal oxides, graphite, alkali salts, alkaline earth salts, organic fibers and inorganic fibers. (a) qualitative and quantitative characterization of the raw material components, in particular with respect to their elementary composition, and allocation of the data obtained by the characterization; (b) qualitative and quantitative selection and combination of the raw material components according to the product formulation, wherein by variation of the quantities of at least one raw material component of the product formulation, a product signal formulation with a unique spectral signal or fingerprint of the product is determined on the basis of the allocated data of the characterization of the raw material components and depositing the unique spectral signal in a database, wherein the uniqueness of the spectral signal is ensured by comparison with spectral signals of already existing products of the database and by variation of the quantity of the at least one raw material component of the product formulation within the quantity tolerances of the at least one raw material component; and (c) producing the product with the unique spectral signal from the raw material components according to the product signal formulation, wherein the raw material components comprise components selected from the group consisting of elastomers, quartz, mica, silica, kaolin, silica acid, barium sulfate, wollastonite, barite, diatomene, talc, boron nitride, metal oxides, graphite, alkali salts, alkaline earth salts, organic fibers and inorganic fibers. <EOS>