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Tech Firms Pursue Anti-Counterfeiting

Carlsbad-based Life Technologies will branch into the high-tech world of anti-counterfeiting in a new deal inked with Palo Alto-based nanotechnology firm Nanosys.

The licensing agreement signed last week gives both companies access to a patent portfolio of anti-counterfeiting technologies in the form of tiny fluorescent crystals, called nanocrystals, invisible to the naked eye but detectable using ultraviolet lights.

Life Technologies and Nanosys, developer of nanotech products like thin-film electronics and Flash memory cards, aim to market the so-called quantum dot technology to electronics companies, drug makers, art dealers and governments seeking solutions for anti-counterfeiting in currency, among others.

The companies aim to capture a piece of the $1 trillion market for counterfeit goods, according to Vicki Singer, head of global out-licensing for Life Technologies.

Josh Wolfe, managing director of Lux Capital, a Nanosys investor, referred to the nanocrystal technology as a kind of “Holy Grail” in anti-counterfeiting.

“The brilliance of it is these things are so difficult to make you can’t counterfeit the technology,” he said.

Research at MIT and UC Berkeley first led to the discovery of optical properties of quantum dots. Scientists found ways to make the dots water soluble and to give off a bright light when illuminated.


Patent Portfolio

When Life Technologies, formerly Invitrogen, purchased Quantum Dot in 2005, it gained access to a wide patent portfolio for use of quantum dots in life sciences applications, such as for detecting tumors and proteins. Nanosys acquired rights to the use of quantum dots in all other applications.

The two companies met several times during the past few years to explore potential opportunities where they might collaborate.

“We reached out to them because Nanosys did hold the other half of the intellectual property technology,” Singer said. “By combining that new expertise that we had both developed, we could both do better together.”

Singer said foreign governments have shown interest in using the dots in currency applications and for keeping visas and passports protected.

Drug makers also face significant challenges related to counterfeiting, another market Life Technologies said it hopes to capture. The United Nations estimates counterfeit drug sales totaled more than $300 billion in 2008.

“Everybody’s looking for the technological solution,” said Jim Dahl, former assistant director of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations who has testified before Congress about drug counterfeiting.

Last year, the California State Board of Pharmacy pushed back a deadline for the third time requiring drug makers and suppliers to track prescription drugs electronically. The measure gave companies until Jan. 1, 2011, to come up with electronic solutions for combating counterfeit medicines.

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