Beware of Fake Designer Products

(ARA) – That Gucci bag you just bought for a fraction of the cost of retail — are you sure it’s real? What about those Tommy Hilfiger jeans? Or the Hermes scarf? Just because something has a designer’s label doesn’t mean it’s actually made by that company. There’s a chance it could be a fake.
Every year, billions of dollars in fake designer products are sold on the street, in retail shops, at mall kiosks and at private parties. The retail industry as a whole loses $500 billion a year — that’s seven percent the worldwide trade in counterfeit goods. This number doesn’t include the losses to city tax coffers nationwide.
The consumer loses as well. Knock-offs are made with cheaper materials, have poor workmanship, and do not even approach the quality of an original. Unfortunately many items are cleverly copied, and it’s difficult to tell the difference initially.
New technology can help consumers get the quality they pay for. Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology products and services company, may have a solution to this shoppers’ dilemma. The strategy is to place a unique marker into a product label, thus enabling the product to have its own “fingerprint.”
It works this way: unique sequences of DNA codes that are virtually impossible to replicate become a fingerprint or traceable marking for a product. Various combinations of specially processed botanical DNA fragments, with unique characteristics and one-of-a-kind sequences, or codes, are embedded into ink or onto a label, which then becomes a traceable tag for any imprinted product. The proprietary process allows plant DNA molecules to withstand light, heat, solvents and other environmental conditions that would normally cause degeneration.
This DNA Ink is nearly impossible to copy due to the unlimited number of specific sequences. The company is able to tailor the DNA Ink to meet any product requirements and it can be used in conjunction with more than one anti-counterfeit technology including holograms, biometrics, fingerprint recognition and all other types of ink anti-counterfeit technologies.
Using combinations of plant DNA that are embedded into a non-silicon based microchip, the company can create custom labels or hang tags with the embedded DNA Chip for manufacturers to easily authenticate. Either a credit card slot reader, for hangtags, or a contact point system can be used to instantly determine whether a garment is genuine. This “instant detection” will be available at the point-of-purchase.
“Counterfeiters should beware,” says Dr. Julia Hunter, spokeswoman for Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. “This technology leapfrogs over all other existing biometric technologies, and makes forgery completely detectable.”
Once this technology is widely applied, consumers can be assured that when they pay for a beautiful Kate Spade bag, it’s going to be the real thing.
For further information, visit www.adnas.com.
Courtesy of ARA Content