Surface specialists Schattdecor AG and SURTECO GmbH are unveiling a new form of copyright protection in cooperation with FiliGrade, a company that specializes in the production of customized watermarks. This new method can’t be detected by customers and counterfeiters but will help manufacturers track down, and even prosecute, the pirates.
Schattdecor first presented decors featuring the method developed by FiliGrade back in 2017.
“We have been working with our partner FiliGrade on the development and implementation of a new form of decor copyright protection for the past four years,” said Roland Heeger, chief technical officer at Schattdecor AG. “The question of how to protect ourselves from the industry’s counterfeiters has been a concern of ours for many years – with the new method, we now have an answer. This method won’t completely prevent counterfeiting, of course. But with this new form of copyright protection, we are creating the legal means and the basis for successfully tracking down the counterfeiters, and even prosecuting them in court.
The embedded watermark provides protection against decor counterfeiting and can be scanned with a mobile device by customers. Two years ago, Schattdecor released a corresponding app that can be used to scan the watermark to view decor information like the decor name, decor number, or collection colors on a mobile device. This is a service that the company now wants to launch industry-wide together with other competitors via an industry app.
“Our intention is to offer this protection to our competitors as well in order to achieve the maximum effect throughout the industry in the form of a standardized method of copyright protection,” said Heeger. “And in doing so, we will help bring the counterfeiters to justice. After all, the major, reputable decor printers invest heavily in R&D to produce trendy, successful, and market-driven decors for their customers every year, and the counterfeiters take the easy way out and only counterfeit the decors after they have proven popular in the market.”