Shoes with ShieldTag

Brand Owners, Rejoice! ShieldTag Help You Combat Counterfeit Products By Only Using Smartphones

The circulation of counterfeit products in the same market channel as the original ones has been seemingly a never-ending issue for brand owners, and to a certain degree for the consumers of branded products as well. 

Counterfeit products are fakes or unauthorised imitations of the original products. Fake products are usually manufactured and sold with the intent of taking advantage of the economic benefits of the imitated product by free-riding the reputation of the original brands.

Is it really possible to get rid of fake products from the market? Well, although it is not impossible, it still won’t be easy either. 

But at least, there is hope. 

The Economic Loss Due To Counterfeit Products

A report from the Indonesian Anti-Counterfeiting Society (MIAP) suggested that Indonesia suffered losses of up to IDR 291 trillion in 2020 due to fake products. 

Of the total circulation on the market, 38% of fashion and leather goods are counterfeit goods, respectively. Meanwhile, 50% of the cosmetics in circulation are not genuine products.

This gloomy report by MIAP reminded us that our national industry and economy, and even reputation, have been the main victims of the heartless act of the infringers towards the brand owners and the consumers.

Brand owners’ businesses built with dedication and hard work suffer from counterfeiters who only want to free-ride the brand’s “fame” for economic gain.

A consumer’s disappointment with the quality of the fake product will definitely hurt the brand’s reputation. This is a very large loss that cannot be valued in terms of only money.

Criminal Punishments for producing and selling counterfeit products

The wide circulation of counterfeit products is jeopardising the Indonesian economy in the short and long run. It is in our national interest that our laws and regulations are strong enough to discourage the rampant distribution of fake products in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Trademark Law No. 20/2016 stipulates the following provisions against counterfeit products:

Any person who unlawfully uses a Mark that is entirely the same as a registered Mark belonging to another party for similar goods and services produced and traded shall be sentenced to a maximum imprisonment of 5 (five) years and/or a maximum fine of Rp 2,000,000,000.00 (two billion rupiahs).

Any person who unlawfully uses a Mark which is essentially the same as a registered Mark belonging to another party for goods and/or services of the same type produced and traded shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 4 (four) years and/or a maximum fine of Rp.2,000,000,000.00 (two billion rupiahs).

Any person who violates the provisions as referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2), whose goods cause health problems, environmental disturbances, and/or human death, shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 10 (ten) years and/or a fine of Rp 5,000,000,000.00 (five billion rupiahs).

Solution Needed to Weed Out Counterfeit Products

What if there is a simple and affordable way to make sure that the products circulating in the markets are genuine and the fake ones are easily detected?

There is one, at least. And it comes with the use of machine-readable optical label technology, the QR Code on smartphones!

This technology has been there for the last three decades and it has been implemented in our daily lives in many ways we can imagine. Especially, these days when people use more and more QR Code applications for various purposes on their smartphones.

What is QR Code?

QR Code which stands for “quick response code”, is initially a two-dimensional barcode invented by Denso Wave in 1994, a Japanese automotive company. 

It is a type of barcode that contains a tracker that points to a website URL or application. QR code uses numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary data, and other types of encoding modes to store data efficiently.

QR Code became popular due to its fast readability and greater storage capacity compared to other standard types of barcodes. It is widely implemented in the industry including product tracing, item identification, time tracking, document management, and general marketing.

Typically, a smartphone can be used as a QR code scanner, displaying the code and converting it to some useful form (such as a standard URL for a website, thereby omitting the need for a user to type it into a web browser). 

QR Code is now being widely used for the implementation of Augmented reality, displaying multimedia content, virtual stores, QR code payment, website login, mobile tickets, food ordering, joining a Wi‑Fi network, electronic authentication, loyalty programmes, counterfeit detection, product tracing, COVID-19 tracking and vaccination verification, etc. 

As you may notice above, among the great possibility of using QR code technology today, it is possible to use QR Code technology in detecting counterfeit products using smartphone applications.

One of those smartphone applications that can be used to detect counterfeit products or verify the authenticity of the original products in Indonesia is ShieldTag app.

What is ShieldTag?

ShieldTag is a mobile application developed by PT Karya Generasi Biru (Shieldtag.co) that can be used on Android smartphones or iPads to prevent the wider circulation of counterfeit and pirated products, ShieldTag creates an electronic certification service that can verify the authenticity of a product through a combination of holographic stickers and encrypted QR code technology.

By using Shieldtag, business owners can maintain the originality of their products/works until they reach consumers by easily distinguishing genuine products from fake ones.

Consumers can also easily verify the authenticity of the products they buy simply by scanning the ShieldTag (Encrypted QR Code) through an app or website, which can be easily downloaded via Google Play and the App Store.

How does ShieldTag work?

Brand owners will work together with Shieldtag to install a 3×1.5cm holographic sticker that has been equipped with 7 layers of security & a QR code (ShieldCode). This ShieldCode is covered by a scratching layer to protect its encryption, as well as ensure that the product is still completely new.

ShieldTag Label on the Packaging of the Product to combat counterfeit products

Consumers can easily find out the authenticity of the product purchased by scratching the ShieldCode layer, scanning the QR code through the Shieldtag app/website, and entering a PIN.

ShieldTag Label on the Packaging of the Product to combat counterfeit products

Later, a certificate of authenticity will appear that includes a distribution permit, BPOM certificate, expiration date, or product warranty. To ensure its quality, ShieldTag only works with products that have relevant licenses (such as BPOM permits) and registered Intellectual Property Rights (HAKI).

ShieldTag Label on the Packaging of the Product to combat counterfeit products

The following video shows how to use the ShieldTag on a mobile phone for verifying the authenticity of the product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0FMKI6SYE
How to use ShieldTag App on your smartphone

If you are interested in implementing ShieldTag for the protection of your products, you may visit their website at ShieldTag.Co

ShieldTag Main Features

William Japari, Founder dan CEO of ShieldTag, in one of the Detik.Com articles here, suggests that there are three main features that brand owners can benefit from the application:

  • Verifying the authenticity of the product
  • Monitoring product distribution coverage
  • Managing Marketing Engine Dashboard for appropriate promotional purposes

With the full potential of the optical image reading power of QR codes, there is basically no limit to how this technology can be used.

Conclusion

The existence of counterfeit products in Indonesian markets is still an unending problem for us. Brand owners should consider making good use of digital imaging technology available today to solve the problem and maintain their respective brand reputation and at the same time protect the consumers from fake products circulating in the market.

ShieldTag could be one of the real-world solutions for brand owners and consumers alike in combating fake products. And there’s no doubt that the use of QR Codes technology will advance more and more in the near future.

The Government’s support and efforts are indeed needed to advance the use of the latest technology in protecting the original products and to stop losing money because of the circulation the fake ones.

Images source: ShieldTag.Co

1 2 3