Next generation technologies to combat counterfeiting of electronic components

Counterfeiting is now a global problem that accounts for close to 9% of all worldwide trade, according to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Association (IACA). Unfortunately counterfeiting is no longer restricted to clothes, designer watches, and stereos. The high technology industry has been hugely impacted by this activity. The reason is simple, economics, and availability. Counterfeiters, many of whom are agents of organized crime, wage campaigns that do little more than steal the intellectual property of large technology firms. Fortune 500 technology companies currently employ teams that do little less than conceive ways to protect the companies IP and secure their products - but most importantly secure their brand. Many of these programs entail the use of covert, or invisible, technologies to mark authentic product. How serious is this issue, important enough to have some of the worlds top CEOs spend an entire day at the World Economic Forum discussing how to combat the counterfeiting issue. In today's world, many companies are turning to new "Covert" technologies to mark their products. Tools such as chemically altered dyes and inks are employed to invisibly label authentic products, and to foil the efforts of counterfeiting criminals.