Patent ID: 8108309

Claim:
A method for protecting a manufactured item from being mass produced for fraudulent sale, the manufactured item being marked with an identifier, the method comprising: storing a secret seed in a code generator, the code generator being a hardware device; storing the secret seed in one or more databases in association with the code generator; assigning the code generator to a manufactured item by linking, in the one or more databases, the secret seed with the identifier marked on the manufactured item; generating by the code generator multiple verification codes by execution of an algorithm in the code generator that uses the secret seed as input, the code generator being supplied with the manufactured item for generation of the multiple verification codes during at least one of shipment, sale and warranty of the manufactured item; receiving by a management system a request for verification of the manufactured item during the at least one of shipment, sale and warranty of the manufactured item, the request including the identifier of the manufactured item, and one of the multiple verification codes generated by the code generator; using by the management system the identifier received in the request to look up in the one or more databases the secret seed of the code generator; and validating the manufactured item by the management system by generating an expected verification code using the secret seed, and comparing the expected verification code to the current verification code from the request.