Life Technologies and Nanosys, Inc. today announced to partner to bring to market Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions based on fluorescent nanocrystals also known as quantum dots.

The quantum dots will allow manufacturers to trace the source of their materials and manage and track product shipments, helping stop counterfeit material use in pharmaceutical and diagnostic products, food and beverages (and their agricultural and environmental sources), and electronic goods, reducing counterfeiting of currency, documents, fine art, and luxury goods.
Quantum dots are tiny (nanometer size) fluorescent particles. While invisible to the eye, they emit intensely bright light when exposed to low-cost violet or ultraviolet light sources. Quantum dots display unique colors due to differences in size. Due to their particulate nature, quantum dots can easily be blended with polymers, gels, or inks and printed onto most surfaces. The complexity of their manufacturing process also makes them almost impossible to counterfeit. And, because quantum dots are highly stable, extremely bright and absorptive, they offer advancements in solid state lighting, solar collector and electronic display technology.

The worldwide counterfeit goods trade, excluding counterfeit money, is believed to be on the order of $1 trillion annually. The U.N. estimates counterfeit drug sales alone were over $300 billion in 2008, while the World Customs Organization believes that other counterfeit goods sold for more than $600 billion. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, these losses cost American industry and trade between $200 billion and $250 billion each year and equate to 750,000 American jobs lost.

There is no information yet available on how soon Quantum Dots are available to be used in production. It definitely sounds like a interesting way to fight product piracy.

Via the Life Technologies site and the Nanosys site.