Everything has a starting point. Every blog, just as every job. This is the start of my blog. This blog is about authentication, security, and brand protection. More specifically, it is about how to achieve these using printing and image processing in combination with other technologies. Authentication is proof that something is what it claims to be. Security can mean many things to different people, but in the context of my blog it means both the prevention of fraud and the integrity of data. Brand protection is more ambiguous, but it is addressed best when the response to fraud—a breach in product security—is accurate, rapid and effective.

In starting this blog, I do not wish to make the mistake that many people make on their first day on the job. In trying hard to make a good first impression, they may suppress their real personalities. I call this “personality scrubbing”. While it is certainly important to show up on the first day with energy, a great attitude and a willingness to learn, it is rarely worth personality scrubbing. And, you may live to regret it. My first day at HP (back in the dark ages of the 1990’s) I showed up with my personality, unscrubbed. We had a team meeting the first day, and I wrote up a top ten list and drew a few cartoons. I did this in lectures for more than 20 years, why change? And, because of my irreverence, when I later uttered a faux pas or two (or twenty) folks forgave me because, well, “That’s just Steve being Steve.”

My point is, the purpose of writing is to influence people. I will try to influence you on the topics above because I feel strongly about them and because I have been able to work with some of the world’s greatest minds in formulating my thoughts in these areas for the better part of a decade. I am showing up with my neuroses, with my own idiosyncratic views intact.

So, we reach the main point of this first blog. Namely, that counterfeiting is not what you likely think it is. Counterfeiting is, in my opinion, not mysterious and not unexpected. Often it is a deadly crime, and other times it is the smallest of misdemeanors. Regardless, counterfeiting is a natural consequence of how the world works, today, in 2008. It thrives now precisely because of how the “flat” earth, with its convoluted supply chains, outsourcing, competitive bids and ambitious middle managers, is constructed. We need to address this fact rather than deny it. Rather than hide from it. Rather than minimize it.

The problem counterfeiters are not like the protagonist in “Milwaukee, Minnesota,” bumbling plodders augmenting their collection of $20 bills with a color copier. They are big businesses. How big? Big enough to spoof entire companies (like the faux NEC operating in China in early 2007). Big enough that, for a company like HP—that likes to be #1 or #2 in the sectors it competes—the counterfeiters are often the largest single competitor. Traditional HP competitors like IBM, Sun, Apple, Canon, Kodak, Xerox—well, they are our allies now in the single greatest challenge ever faced by brand owners. Brands are worth trillions (yes, millions of millions) of US dollars globally (granted, this statement meant more a couple years back before the dollar went Antarctica-south). These brands are the counterfeiters’ targets.

Why does counterfeiting work? It works because counterfeiters have massive, tangible advantages over the brands. Counterfeiters do not have to pay for marketing—they use the creativity and hard work of the brand marketers. Counterfeiters do not have to pay for quality assurance—customers already associate quality with the brand, and all the counterfeiters have to do is make their product look like the brand to get that good feeling. Obviously, counterfeiters do not need to grow customer loyalty—yes, they bank on the brand for that, too. Finally, they don’t pay for intellectual property development and protection—they live by the maxim that it’s easier to reverse-engineer than to forward-engineer.

Counterfeiters are businesses. Big businesses, with well-paid, loyal, energetic, motivated research and development staff. After all, they have resources to spare because of what they don’t have to pay for. They are indeed big businesses that wish to stay in (big!) business for the long haul. Illegitimate businesses? In most countries, yes. Unethical businesses? Some counterfeiters, yes, but many actually do provide a product of comparable quality. There’s a lot of grey in this grey market, and I will discuss this in future blogs, along with a more in-depth discussion of addressable vs. non-addressable counterfeiting and how this affects our interpretation.

But, for now, I am pleased to say my first blog is done. I can go home now, breathe deeply, and have that first, anxious day out of the way. Thanks for reading, and to my teammates and colleagues around the world, thanks for your insights and energies.

-Steve