UK announces new measures to spot counterfeit goods

UK scientists have devised a new method which they claim could help identify counterfeit fashion items.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London has said that Terahertz technology, which works through radiation, could be used when trying to identify fabrics and material that look and feel alike.

The method, called Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, works by shooting waves of electromagnetic radiation through a fabric. It then measures how the radiation comes out on the other side.

The NPL’s research, which was published in the Applied Optics journal, examined fabrics made from wool, cotton, linen and silk and enabled scientists to distinguish between fabrics.

It is thought it could be eventually be used to tell the difference between genuine products and cheap imitations as the UK looks to clamp down on the importation of counterfeit products.

The problem of counterfeit goods has blighted the UK fashion industry in recent years. It is estimated to cost the industry £3.5 billion pounds a year in lost sales.

Last week, WIPR reported that the UK alone seized more than 4 million fake items at border controls as part of a Europe wide clamp down on IP infringement.

John Molloy, who worked on the project at the NPL, said the new findings could help safeguard one of the country’s “most valuable industries.”

"Counterfeit clothes can look and feel almost exactly like the real thing and so customs officials need technological assistance to spot them. Terahertz spectroscopy is a fast, safe and reliable test," he added.

Charlie Winckworth, of counsel at Hogan Lovells LLP in London, said the new measures should be welcomed given counterfeiters were becoming “increasingly adept” at their trade.

He said: " … even specially trained teams from within the brand-owner themselves, sometimes find it hard to tell a counterfeit item from the real thing.  Security tags, complicated stitching, and positional security markers can all ultimately be duplicated to some degree, and so anything which aids in the detection of counterfeit goods will be welcomed by the industry.”

However, whilst Winckworth believed there are positive aspects to the system it is no panacea.

“Once the technology can be shrunk into units which customs forces can use readily, terahertz spectroscopy promises to be an incredibly useful tool – and indeed a countermeasure in itself – what is to stop a fashion house fractionally changing the fabric composition of its Spring/Summer range?

"One issue which of course is much harder to tackle are genuine factories running additional shifts, or allowing products to be termed 'faulty' and leaving via the backdoor.  In these cases technological countermeasures are no substitute for strong on-the-ground intelligence."

According to the NPL, the next stage will be to test batches of the same type of fabric from the same manufacturer in a potential collaboration.