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Department of Engineering, ICT and Technologies for Energy and Transport Patent Title A collaborative, anti-counterfeiting procedure. Ref. CNR 10319 Assignee(s): CNR CNR Institute: ICAR Main Inventor: Giovanni Schmid Countries: IT Priority date: 21/05/2014 Abstract The evolution of industrial manufacturing techniques, coupled with the use of an increasing number of materials, allows not only the construction of more and more complex anti-counterfeiting mechanisms, but also the ability to create very good fakes at affordable costs and reduced time. As a matter of fact, traditional anti-counterfeiting techniques are increasingly less effective and alternative systems have been proposed that roots on coding and information-related digital techniques. However, an analysis of these techniques shows the need of better solutions in terms of implementation requirements, easy-of-use and reliability. The purpose of the present invention is an alternative approach to the problem of verifying the originality or authenticity of a product which overcomes some limitations of the current state of the art. Background The Italian sounding begets twice the profits compared with the original products in the European Union only, with a huge loss of revenue for our businesses and our country. According to some statistics of the Guardia di Finanza, there were over one million checks in the food industry with 24 million pounds of seized products, valued at over 840 million euro. Technology The present invention consists of a procedure in which a digital anti-tampering encoding, uniquely bound to the product and the manufacturer, is coupled with a control and management process. This process allows end-users, sellers and authorities to join their efforts in monitoring and detecting fakes. Digital coding and cryptographic techniques are combined with a suitable server-side logic to obtain a physical authentication code (PAC). Advantages and Applications Thanks to PACs all the processes of production, distribution and sale/transaction for different types of products can be controlled through web platforms and applications for mobile devices (e.g. smartphone), with much lower costs than current solutions. The PAC technology can be adopted, in particular, in the production and retailing of high quality foods, in order to protect DOP, IGP and DOCG products. Development stage Studies are in progress aimed at the implementation of a proof-of-concept software prototype. It's also in progress the definition of a business plan in order to give rise to a spin-off company and get the necessary founding to develop the prototype and its engineering for industrial uses. 7