Guidelines for establishing interoperability among independently functioning product identification and related authentication systems

This document establishes a framework for identification and authentication systems. It provides recommendations and best practice that include:

— management and verification of identifiers;

— physical representation of identifiers;

— participants’ due diligence;

— vetting of all participants within the system;

— relationship between the unique identifier (UID) and possible authentication elements related to it;

— questions that deal with the identification of the inspector and any authorized access to privileged information about the object;

— inspector access history (logs).

The model described in this document is intended to determine the common functions of different systems.

This document describes processes, functions and functional units of a generic model. It does not specify any specific technical solutions.

Object identification systems can incorporate other functions and features such as supply chain traceability, quality traceability, marketing activities and others, but these aspects are out of scope of this document.

NOTE This document does not refer to industry-specific requirements such as GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN).