Anti-counterfeiting Serialization Using Seed-Based Position Scrambling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Counterfeiters easily replicate serial numbers by identifying incrementing digits, making it difficult to distinguish counterfeit from authentic products, resulting in significant financial losses and consumer safety risks.
Innovation Solution
An anti-counterfeiting serialization method that involves receiving an input serial number, locating a seed character, determining output positions for incrementing and remaining characters using sequence and scramble tables, and generating an output serial number with the incrementing character in a non-obvious position, thereby increasing the difficulty of reverse-engineering the serialization scheme.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional serialization schemes with sequentially incrementing digits are used, then the serial numbers are easy to generate and verify, but counterfeiters can easily imitate the serialization scheme by identifying incrementing digits
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by disrupting the predictable positional pattern of incrementing digits. Instead of having incrementing digits at fixed positions, the system uses a seed character to dynamically determine the position of incrementing digits, creating an asymmetric and unpredictable structure that prevents counterfeiters from easily identifying and replicating the serialization scheme while maintaining ease of generation through algorithmic determination
2Ease of operation
If serial numbers have incrementing digits at fixed positions, then verification is simple, but reverse-engineering the serialization scheme is easy for counterfeiters
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing a seed character that encodes the positional information for incrementing digits. This seed character is determined before serial number generation and serves as a preliminary key that guides the entire serialization process, making verification straightforward through seed validation while preventing reverse-engineering since the seed creates a unique, unpredictable positional pattern for each serialization scheme
Data Source
AI summary
An anti-counterfeiting serialization method. The method can include receiving an input serial number, locating a seed character at a predetermined position in the input serial number, determining, based on the seed character, a first output position for an incrementing character of the input serial number, determining, based on the incrementing character, at least one second output position for at least one remaining character of the input serial number, and generating an output serial number having the incrementing character in the first output position and at least one remaining character in the at least one second output position.