ROSSLYN, Va. — The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced that with product counterfeiting on the rise — posing an increasing public safety threat as well as challenging manufacturers’ efforts to protect their brands and customers — its board of governors has called for increased member company awareness of product authentication technologies, strategies, and practices.

As a first step, NEMA is presently surveying a random sample of its membership with respect to current member company knowledge, usage, and needs regarding product authentication. The survey asks eight basic questions. The first five are intended to obtain a profile of the NEMA membership’s product authentication organizational responsibilities, magnitude of the counterfeiting challenge faced, implementation status of product authentication technologies, and the reasons for investigation and implementation of specific technologies. The last three questions are intended to gauge member company interest in activities NEMA could coordinate, such as technology education webinars or standardization efforts.

NEMA will be relying on the results of this survey to determine activities to be offered to members that will add value to their efforts in protecting their brands and customer base from substandard counterfeit products.

Publication date: 05/05/2008