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World desk6 min

How to Protect Products from Counterfeiting: A Practical Guide for Manufacturers

A product mark is only one layer of protection. Learn how to map counterfeiting risks, choose controls for authentication or traceability, manage verification data and review effectiveness.
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Protecting products from counterfeiting takes more than adding a security label or code. Start by mapping how counterfeit or tampered goods could enter your supply chain, decide who must authenticate or trace products, then combine technical controls with organisational and legal measures. Pilot the approach and review whether it works across the product’s lifecycle.

1. Map the risks across the product lifecycle

Begin with the product and the routes it takes—not with a technology catalogue. Inventory relevant components, packaging, suppliers, production stages, distributors, service channels and resale touchpoints. Look for places where counterfeit goods could be substituted for genuine stock, or where a product or package could be altered without detection.

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The EUIPO summary of ISO 22384:2020 frames product security as a lifecycle activity, from concept and design through manufacturing, distribution, service and disposal. Its summary states that “product security and supply chain integrity measures offered on the market represent only part of a solution”: technical controls need to sit alongside organisational and legal measures.

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Identify the people and organisations who may need to check, investigate or trace a product, such as buyers, service partners, customs officers or internal investigators. The relevant threat and verifier determine what a useful control must do.

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2. Define the result you need

Authentication, identification, tamper evidence and traceability are related but distinct goals. Write down the specific question the protection plan must answer before choosing a mark or system.

  • Authenticity: Can a checker determine whether a product or component is genuine?
  • Item or batch history: Can the business establish where a product or batch moved, and which recorded events relate to it?
  • Tampering: Does the business need evidence that a product or package was opened or altered?
  • Material or product claims: Must a verifier confirm a particular material or product attribute?

A marking may help check authenticity, while a unique identifier tied to recorded supply-chain events can also support tracking and tracing. A seal may show interference with packaging, but does not by itself authenticate everything inside. A material tracer can address a different kind of check. No single control necessarily answers all of these questions.

3. Compare controls by the job they do

The EUIPO Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Technology Guide groups technologies into electronic, marking, chemical and physical, mechanical, and digital-media categories. Its map is a landscape of examples, not a ranking or endorsement. Compare candidate controls by threat addressed, placement, verifier, production changes, reader and database needs, traceability value, interoperability and lifecycle cost.

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Approach Potential role Verification and implementation considerations
Visible or smartphone-readable marks Quick authenticity checks; selected codes can also carry traceability data Visual marks may be checked directly or with a smartphone. A code supports traceability only when it is registered and used in supply-chain records. A copied visible mark alone may not be sufficient for a higher-risk threat.
Unique identifier marks Item-level authentication and, when linked to records, tracking and tracing Identifiers can be associated with signatures in a reference database. Recording them may require production-line or printing-line equipment; pre-recorded identifier labels may require less process change. The EUIPO guide says such labels usually cost a few euro cents per item; that is an indicative guide estimate, not a vendor quote or universal installed cost.
Copy-detection patterns Authentication on a product, document or package Software compares information in an original pattern with a scanned pattern. Patterns can be integrated into QR codes or data matrices and read by a phone or scanner. The EUIPO guide says digital integration need not require major production or logistics changes; it does not establish a general price.
Chemical encoding and tracers Hidden checks of material or product authenticity, or tamper-related checks Tiny particles are applied to suitable materials and detected with specialist equipment; the EUIPO guide notes that decoding may take place in a laboratory. Production changes and cost depend on the product, material and method.
Electronic and mechanical controls Identification, tracking, tamper evidence or physical protection, depending on the method EUIPO examples include RFID and NFC, electronic seals, labels, laser engraving, anti-alteration devices, security threads and security film. Assess how a specific control fits the product and supply-chain workflow; the category name alone does not establish its security performance.
Supply-chain provenance data Cross-party history and supply-chain risk visibility NISTIR 8536 describes interoperable event data linked by cryptographically verifiable links, with selective disclosure. Evaluate standards alignment, partner participation, data governance and implementation security for the actual system.

EUIPO describes marking technologies as primarily serving authentication: “The main purpose is to authenticate rather than identify individual products.” A unique identifier can support item-level records, but the mark alone is not a movement history; that requires associated records and a process for using them.

4. Design verification and data handling

A security feature is only useful if its intended checker can use it. For each proposed control, define where it appears, who checks it, what equipment or information they need, and what result they should see. A visual mark may be checked directly or with a phone; a unique identifier may depend on a reference database and equipment to capture it during production. Chemical tracers can require specialist readers or laboratory decoding.

For controls linked to data, establish operational ownership before rollout:

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  • Who creates and maintains reference records?
  • Which data can partners see, and what information must remain confidential?
  • How will suspicious, duplicate or unexpected verification attempts be assessed?
  • What is the verification process if a reader, server or network connection is unavailable?
  • How will records be retained so an investigator can answer the original business question?

These are design decisions, not universal requirements imposed by a particular technology. They should reflect the product, partners and threat model.

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For cross-company traceability, NISTIR 8536, published September 9, 2026, describes standardized, shareable supply-chain event data connected through cryptographically verifiable links to form a temporally ordered provenance chain. It emphasizes interoperability and selective disclosure, so organizations can share necessary traceability data while protecting sensitive business information. This is a framework for system design, not proof that a particular vendor implementation is secure or suitable.

5. Combine controls with organisational and legal measures

Choose a set of measures that addresses the mapped risks rather than relying on one conspicuous feature. Depending on the threat, a plan could combine a mark or identifier with production and distribution procedures, packaging controls, recordkeeping and escalation processes. For example, a tamper-evident label can be one packaging control, but it does not independently prove that the product inside is genuine.

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Assign responsibility for applying and recording controls, checking exceptions and responding to suspected counterfeits. Keep the technical choice connected to the business process: a code that is never captured in supply-chain records cannot provide the same traceability value as a code consistently recorded against relevant events.

Intellectual-property registrations, customs or marketplace reporting, litigation and enforcement depend on the country, product and sales channel. The appropriate rights and remedies cannot be determined without those details; obtain jurisdiction- and market-specific legal advice rather than assuming one enforcement route applies everywhere.

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6. Pilot, measure and review

Before broad rollout, test the control in the conditions where it will actually be applied and checked. Confirm that production can apply and record it consistently, that intended verifiers can use it, and that resulting records answer the investigation or traceability question the plan was designed around.

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Set measures of effectiveness that match the threat and intended result, then review them regularly. ISO 22384 guidance, as summarized by EUIPO, includes implementing and regularly assessing the protection plan. The cited guidance does not provide universal performance thresholds or a single pilot protocol, so define review criteria for the product and supply chain rather than borrowing an unsupported benchmark.

Why the risk deserves attention

As context for the scale of the problem, the EUIPO guide reports OECD/EUIPO estimates for 2019 of up to 2.5% of global trade and up to 5.8% of EU imports—around EUR 119 billion—in counterfeit and pirated goods. These are estimates for 2019 from a study published in 2021, not measurements of current-year trade.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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