In order to fight counterfeiting, brand owners are using security technology which may be a combination of overt and covert. Overt features, such as holograms, are useful because they enhance a product’s image and consumers will recognise them as marks of authenticity. Holograms, however, are susceptible to counterfeiting because the technology is widely available. The key to designing a good brand protection technology is to make it easy for brand owners and their investigators to identify genuine goods, while making it very difficult for counterfeiters and crooks to know how that is being done. Using nanotechnology, companies can now apply covert information, such as batch information, directly onto products and packaging. They can, for example, encrypt nanoscale codes onto pharmaceutical pills for tracking and tracing. They can also create nanobarcodes, invisible barcodes that are technologically complex, but can be used to easily authenticate products and packaging.