New Security Image Register Launched

The Hologram Image Register (HIR), established by the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) to help safeguard hologram copyright and underpin the use of holograms in secure documents and products, has been extended to include all optically variable (or active) features, and relaunched as the Security Image Register (SIR).

The expansion and rebranding of the current HIR, the only system of its type for the secure document community, as the SIR reflects the changing realities of the global security printing industry and security features. Holograms are increasingly being incorporated and integrated with other optically variable devices (OVDs) to provide integrated, added value and advanced anti- counterfeiting solutions, but they are only one – albeit an important one – of a number of different imaging technologies that offer colour change, movement, animation and/or 3D effects.

The centrally held global database of secure optical images will continue to be operated on behalf of the IHMA by the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau under the strictest confidence and security that supports ISO14298 ¹.

The ability to register images with the SIR will be available to producers of all types of secure OVDs, along with security printers, designers of secure documents and banknotes, as well as governments institutions such as central banks and issuing authorities.

It will enable them to check that their OVD design, or elements of the design, do not infringe copyright or allow the unintentional copy of existing OVDs, and protects the security image by identifying and recording all copyright associated with each design. The image registration is completed once the design has received clearance.

The SIR will also be accessible to law enforcement agencies, allowing them to check for the provenance of a design when they need information on a suspect OVD.

The registration of images through the SIR secure portal is a fully online process whereby artwork is submitted electronically to provide quicker design checks. The optical device producer or supplier submitting a design search should have the authorisation of their customers to use copyrighted artwork provided for use in the final design. This is evidenced in the portal by warranties and indemnities to that effect, significantly speeding up the whole verification process and ensuring copyright/IP is clearly identified and protected for all parties.

The SIR is likely to be of particular interest to the currency community, given the plethora of optically variable technologies now being used to protect banknotes as patches, stripes and thread, or integrated into windows. Any feature with an optically active element is eligible – be it based on micro-lens arrays, micro-mirrors, plasmonics, nano-gratings, colour change, caustics, polarisation, photonic crystals, special print-generated effects etc, or a combination of these.

According to Dr Paul Dunn, Chair of the IHMA, ‘the SIR reflects a rapidly changing and innovative global sector, where the technology is increasingly a part of an integrated security strategy to protect and secure documents. It represents a beneficial step forward, more accurately reflecting the way holograms and other OVDs are designed and used – undoubtedly facilitating an increase in the registration of images to secure their integrity.’

The SIR will inherit nearly 10,000 hologram registrations from the HIR, a number that is growing by the day. It has helped to prevent numerous attempts to source copy holograms, and has also helped to confirm that a suspect hologram was, indeed, a fake, which in turn has led to arrests and prosecution of the counterfeiters.

Currently, registration of a hologram design with the HIR is a pre-condition of many tenders and procurements, particularly by government bodies.

Registration of images with the SIR is free for the 80+ IHMA members and for a fee for non-IHMA members. A special membership category is being set up for manufacturers of non-holographic optically variable features that will enable them to join the IHMA and thereby benefit from the free registration without having to fulfil the normal eligibility criteria of membership.

The new SIR will go live in January 2024.

For more information, contact info@ihma.org

1 - ISO 14298 – Management of Security Printing (and Security Foil) Processes specifies requirements for the management of security printing processes. Its goals are: 

•To improve the security for the industry in regard to security printing and aid the fight against fraud and forgery

•To reduce trade barriers by encouraging uniform practices around the world

•Satisfy clients’ increasing security needs