DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers (P&IP) and its Security & Solutions business launched a marketing agreement with identif GmbH of Erlangen, Germany, to distribute two authentication technologies for packaging and labeling. The partnership followed DuPont's purchase of an equity stake in identif in December 2004 and marked DuPont's push to position itself as an integrator of security solutions across flexible and rigid packaging supply chains.
Bio-Molecular Fingerprint is a covert system that mixes customer-specific DNA markers into printing ink. A special pen activates a luminescent signal readable by a handheld device, enabling traceability without visible alteration to the package. Color Spectra Film is an overt, machine-readable color-shifting film built from vacuum-coated layers as thin as 5 nm, creating signatures difficult to reproduce by scanning or photocopying.
Bristol-Myers Squibb was already using identif authentication technology on anti-cancer and HIV drug packaging to deter tampering and counterfeiting. Georg Bauer, managing director of identif, cited heightened global demand for product security, while Volker Plehn, director of DuPont Security & Solutions, emphasized the need for robust yet easy-to-use authentication integrated into existing print and lamination workflows.
Separately, DuPont announced in August 2005 the acquisition of 100% of DuPont Authentication Systems (DAS), a joint venture with Keystone Technologies created in 2001. DAS supplied Izon three-dimensional photopolymer labels for overt, covert, and forensic brand authentication used in electronics, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and government security documents.
For flexible packaging converters and brand owners, the identif and DAS initiatives signaled that print and laminate lines would increasingly be evaluated not only for graphics quality but for embedded security layers. Pharmaceutical and high-value consumer segments led adoption, but the underlying ink and film technologies were applicable to any printed flexible structure requiring supply-chain verification.