CDR: hawking DNA as unique IDs

A. Melon juicy at melontraffickers.com
Tue Sep 12 08:53:26 PDT 2000


Latest Use for Ones DNA --
               Thwarting Counterfeiters

               Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer 
                                                
                                               Monday, September 11,
                                               2000 



                       

               Syd the platypus, Millie the echidna
               and Olly the kookaburra have a secret
               weapon to foil counterfeiting crooks. 

               The furry mascots of the 2000 Summer
               Olympics in Sydney -- as well as an
               avalanche of caps, T-shirts, mugs, pins
               and other official Olympics
               merchandise -- are being tagged with
               invisible ink containing DNA strands
               from an unidentified Australian athlete. 

               The goal is to thwart increasingly
               sophisticated forgers trying to get a
               piece of the $389 million market for
               Olympics keepsakes. 

               High-quality infringements have
               increased during the past couple of
               months leading up to the games, said
               Catherine McGill, legal counsel and
               brand protection manager for the
               Sydney Organizing Committee for the
               Olympic Games. Detail-oriented
               counterfeiters copy the swing tags,
               sewn-in labels and packaging. That is
               where the DNA comes into its own as
               being the absolutely foolproof, sure
               way to determine if something is fake. 

               Other ways to combat counterfeiting,
               such as holograms, can be duplicated
               by determined bootleggers. 

               The DNA-laced ink is being applied to
               most of the 3,500 official souvenirs --
               some 50 million individual items. Its
               the largest deployment ever of DNA as
               a security device. 

               McGill oversees a team of 60
               logocops equipped with special
               scanners that can detect the DNA ink.
               The logocops will roam Sydney and
               other Australian cities, 

               pouncing on street vendors and retail
               outlets to determine whether their
               merchandise is authentic. Australian
               customs officials have already seized
               more than 120,000 phony Olympics
               souvenirs worth millions of dollars that
               were being sent into the country from
               overseas, largely from Asia, she said. 

               DNA Technologies of Los Angeles is
               the company behind the initiative,
               which reportedly costs about 5 cents
               per item. 

               Chris Outwater, president of DNA
               Technologies, said the process
               involves extracting DNA from a blood
               sample, taking a fraction of it, then
               amplifying it and adding a small
               amount to the invisible ink. Some junk
               DNA is also thrown into the mix as a
               red herring, he said. 

               Theres no way someone could take (a
               sample tag) and reproduce the mark,
               he said. Imagine standing outside the
               New York City Public Library and
               challenging a counterfeiter: Im using
               one sentence from one book inside that
               library you find that sentence. Thats
               how daunting it would be for someone
               to figure out what the code is. 

               Using DNA, the unique biological
               signature of each human, for such a
               commercial purpose signifies how
               society has come to view DNA as a
               magic potion, said Susan Lindee,
               co-author of The DNA Mystique: The
               Gene as a Cultural Icon, a 1995 book.
               Its the commercialization of the
               genome to the most ridiculous degree,
               she said. Promoters have been
               successful at weaving into popular
               culture the idea that DNA is the
               ultimate arbiter of whats true,
               authentic, real. 

               She challenged Outwaters assertion
               that a DNA security code would be
               counterfeit-proof. Most people dont
               have that kind of technical expertise,
               but if theyre only using a sequence
               there are plenty of individuals who
               could be hired (to duplicate it), she
               said. If it became truly profitable --
               lets say all designer clothing were
               tagged with DNA -- thered be
               somebody who had a financial stake in
               figuring out how to copy the DNA and
               fake it. 

               Outwater said some well-known
               designer brands have adopted the
               technology on sewn-in labels, but
               prefer not to publicize it. He hopes to
               extend the technology to such areas as
               pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and to
               secure documents and financial
               instruments, including passports,
               currency and ID cards. 

               A reliable, duplication-proof means of
               authenticating goods is sorely needed.
               Counterfeit goods in the United States
               amount to some $200 billion a year. 

               Fine arts and sports collectibles are
               areas where authentication is crucial.
               Artist Thomas Kinkade incorporates
               some of his own DNA into the
               signatures inked on his artwork. 

               PSA/DNA Authentication Services of
               Newport Beach (Orange County)
               licenses the DNA Technologies
               product to authenticate sports
               memorabilia and autographs. After
               starting with Mark McGwires
               record-setting 70th home-run ball, it
               next tagged Hank Aarons 715th
               home-run ball and bat, and now
               broadly uses the technology. 

               Major League Baseball asked us to
               authenticate all the game balls used
               during the World Series, said Jason
               Meyerson, PSA/DNA president. We
               can apply the DNA onto the surface of
               any collectible with a custom-made
               felt-tip pen. 

               The company will provide
               representatives to stand next to Joe
               Montana as he signs autographs and
               mark each one with the invisible DNA
               ink, Meyerson said. Whats beautiful
               about it is that its permanent,
               nontransferable and invisible. 






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