IntelliSeed™ – GlaxoSmithKline

The Directors of DataDot Technology Limited (ASX:DDT) announce that AgTechnix Pty Ltd, the joint initiative company owned by DDT and Ipeco Pty Limited, has entered into a commercial arrangement with GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Limited (GSK) to use IntelliSeed™ on a commercial quantity of poppy seed to be sown by GSK in the 2010 season.

Intelliseed™ is a patented track and trace technology allowing seeds, grain and other bulk commodities to be identified accurately and cost effectively, right down to an individual batch number, so providing both detection of counterfeit target commodities and a control mechanism for internal or cross border, end-to-end supply chain management. Counterfeiting results in losses to plant breeders and agricultural and horticultural producers world-wide.

From Tasmania, GSK supplies approximately 25% of the global poppy market with opiate derived products from the cultivation of poppies. The decision by GSK to use IntelliSeed™ will enhance the value of this export product by adding supply chain security, visibility, seed authentication, “in soil” identification and seeding rate validation techniques that have been previously unavailable at this level to the global seed industry.

Mr Ben Bootle, CEO of DDT, said that AgTechnix welcomes the opportunity to partner the application of IntelliSeed™ with GSK, a recognised in-field technology leader in commercial poppy production. Mr Rohan Kile, Crop Supply Manager of GSK, said that IntelliSeed™ is a logical next step in extending the company’s already high service levels to its Tasmanian network of contracted growers. It will provide seed authentication at all levels of the supply chain from seed production to final sowing.

Contact Information:

DataDot Technology Limited
Ben Bootle – CEO
bbootle@datadotdna.com
+61 (0)2 8977 4900

AgTechnix Pty Limited.
Neil Mulcahy – CEO
nmulcahy@agtechnix.com
+61 (0)3 97751313

Glaxo-Smith-Kline Australia Pty Limited
Rohan Kile
Crop Supply Manager
rohan.g.kile@gsk.com

New Patent-Pending System for Product Authentication

DataTraceDNA has lodged a patent application for a new automated method of product authentication that will enable confirmation of the integrity of both natural and man-made items. The system operates on the detection of characteristic spectral responses and/or the presence of contaminants. The patent-pending system will facilitate and extend DataTraceDNA’s offering of services to organisations that need, or wish, to have strong scientific proof of the origin of an item or product.

DataDot Technology Limited (ASX: DDT) is pleased to announce that its joint venture company, DataTraceDNA Pty. Limited (DataTraceDNA), has lodged a patent application in the USA, to be followed in other selected countries, for a new method of determining the integrity and provenance of a wide variety of natural and/or man-made materials, effectively in real time.

This new intellectual property takes DataTraceDNA into a new realm of authentication solutions. It will enable the company to offer a range of new services to industry where there are concerns about quality, purity and integrity of materials. Examples include food (farmed or produced), manufactured goods, security documents and pharmaceutical industries.

The new DataTraceDNA system will appeal to industries and companies concerned with the quality of their products, who wish to be certain they can unequivocally prove the purity, quality and provenance of products.

The new technology will also allow companies charged with whole-of-life maintenance of materials to authenticate and vet their input waste streams. This capability will ensure that companies do not inherit liability for the safe disposal of competitor or generic products or materials.

DataTraceDNA is a 50/50 joint venture between DDT and the CSIRO. Ben Bootle, Chief Executive Officer of DataTraceDNA, said “DataTraceDNA is applying its very considerable experience, gained over the past five years, to develop exciting new technologies that solve some of the most important product quality challenges facing the global economy. I expect our new system will be operational in the second half of calendar 2010 and generating revenue in the 2010/11 financial year.” The market for authentication and quality control solutions is growing rapidly in line with growth in global trade and the ever-increasing need to validate the origin, composition and quality of natural and man-made products.

About DataTraceDNA

DataTraceDNA Pty Limited is a 50/50 joint venture of the CSIRO and DataDot Technology Limited. The company offers a ground breaking approach to counterfeit security protection using nanotechnology that is invisibly embedded within the molecular structure of a manufactured product. DataDot Technology Ltd is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange under the code “DDT”. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), owned by the Australian Federal Government, is one of the top-ranked research institutions in the world and is a leader in the rapidly growing field of nanotechnology. The technologies are supported by our worldwide verification database.

For more information, press only:

Greg Twemlow
General Manager
DataTraceDNA Pty Limited
E: gtwemlow@datatracedna.com
P: +61 2 8977 4900

Anti-theft protection for your road bicycle

Extra peace of mind for road bicycle owners. Click here for full story.

DataTraceDNA has been selected to provide tracing and authentication technology for luxury carpet brand

DataTraceDNA has been selected by Verifi TT and Elders Primary Wool to provide tracing technology for new carpet brand “Just Shorn”. 10 year exclusive contract embeds DataTraceDNA® in the consumer market.

DataDot Technology Limited (ASX: DDT) is pleased to announce that its joint venture DataTraceDNA Pty. Limited’s global licensee for textile applications, VTT Marketing Limited, using the trade name Verifi TT™, has been selected by Elders Primary Wool New Zealand to authenticate sustainable luxury carpets destined for
the US market.

Elders Primary Wool, equally owned by Elders New Zealand and Primary Wool Cooperative recently unveiled the Just Shorn brand at trade shows in Las Vegas USA. The exclusive 10 year license to Elders Primary Wool for use of Verifi TT™ is for the application of covert DataTraceDNA® textile signatures to genuine sustainable New Zealand wool carpet. The signatures are invisible and can only be identified using a portable digital reader, the Authenticator.

John Pettengill, executive director of VTT Marketing said “The sale represented a unique opportunity for New Zealand wool growers to differentiate their product and represented his company’s first commercial sale of the technology. As well as offering a unique opportunity to authenticate wool carpets the technology presents a high level of protection against counterfeiting. Counterfeiting within the fashion sector presents one of the largest challenges in global brand protection and Verifi TT™ has attracted substantial interest from leading companies promoting fashion clothing, bags and footwear.

Three global brand leaders are currently evaluating Verifi TT™ for use in textiles to improve counterfeit protection and are expected to conclude commercial arrangements within the next three months.”

DataTraceDNA Pty. Limited. (DataTraceDNA) is a 50/50 joint venture between DDT and the CSIRO. Ben Bootle, Chief Executive Officer of DataTraceDNA, said “Together with Verifi TT, DataTraceDNA aims to ensure that high-quality, sustainable New Zealand wool can be instantly proven as genuine anywhere in the supply chain. Our invisible tracer technology is the most durable form of product protection and authentication available, and this collaboration paves the way for broader US market adoption.”

Mr. Bootle added, “Verifi TT™ is an excellent example of how a new product concept can be developed by DataTraceDNA and commercialised by way of partnering. It’s also a strong endorsement of the ongoing market potential of the DataTraceDNA® technology”.

The Verifi TT/Elders Primary Wool deal is for the sale of sustainable New Zealand wool carpet to CCA Global Partners in the USA, generally regarded as the world’s largest carpet retailer. “Verifi TT will make available a powerful technology that provides us with the ability to maintain integrity in the value chain, and will give all participants the confidence that they are getting exactly the fibre and carpet that they are expecting” said Stu Chapman, Chairman, Elders Primary Wool.

“Woollen carpets generally retail for about the same price as their synthetic rivals but they account for only 2 per cent of the US market. Growing the US market share of woollen carpets to only 3 per cent would use up New Zealand’s entire strong-wool clip.” US legislation for sustainability certification makes it clear the onus is on the manufacturer to prove their product is genuine and can be proven to be sustainable. Entering the US market without the protection afforded by the Verifi TT™ system was simply not an option for Elders Primary Wool.

For more information, press only:

DataDot Technology Limited
Ben Bootle
Managing Director
DataDot Technology Limited Australia
E: bbootle@datadotdna.com
P: +61 2 89774900

DataTraceDNA Pty. Ltd.
Greg Twemlow
General Manager
DatatraceDNA Australia
E: gtwemlow@datatracedna.com
M: +61 2 89774900

Verifi TT technology:
John Pettengill
Executive Director
VTT Marketing Limited
Auckland, New Zealand
E: pettengill@xtra.co.nz
M: +64 21 987432

Copper crime caught out by new DataDot technology

An inventive Australian technology product is at the centre of the fight against a worldwide epidemic of copper theft affecting energy and telecommunications companies among others.

Crime Stoppers Director for Australia and Crime Stoppers International, Peter Price OAM said: “This is brilliant news. It’s great to see an Australian company leading the way in new technologies that will help reduce crime.”

DataDot Technology Ltd, best known for its microdot anti-theft devices for cars, bicycles and boats, has extended its expertise into industry applications with a new identification system called ‘AuthentiCable’.

AuthentiCable embeds a permanent ‘microdot’ identification technology into expensive electrical conductors to help prevent copper theft and cable theft.

The product has been developed through a joint venture company owned by DataDot and the CSIRO called DataTraceDNA Pty Ltd (DataTrace).

DataDot recognised at the 2009 Crime Stoppers Australia awards ceremony

• Minister for Police Michael Daley today congratulated those who won awards at last night’s Crime Stoppers Awards Ceremony.
• Mr Daley said the support provided to Crime Stoppers by a variety of private companies and organisations was a great example of how the corporate sector could support the NSW Police.
• “Organisations such as Crime Stoppers play a major role in encouraging people to report crimes – which in turn allows Police to apprehend criminals and prevent crime occurring,” Mr Daley said.
• “Crime Stoppers operates throughout Australia and in numerous jurisdictions across the world, and they make a significant contribution to the safety of the NSW community,” he said.
• Click here for the pdf of the Press Release

The awards DDT received were:

Data Dot Technology - for their outstanding contribution to the Crime Stoppers MARINE campaign.
Data Dot Technology – For outstanding contribution to the Crime Stoppers COPPER THEFT campaign during the 2008/09 financial year.

DataDotDNA thwarts bike thieves

The National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council (NMVTRC) today released figures showing a dramatic drop in the theft rate of Yamaha motorcycles. This is a direct result of the company adopting DataDotDNA identification protection across its entire range two years ago.

The NMVTRC Executive Director, Ray Carroll, said the Council was especially pleased with these results as they had long been encouraging motorcycle importers to provide better, permanent identification of their vehicles to help combat theft.

“Motorcycles are very portable and easily stolen”  says Carroll.

“Also, with easily removed Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and engine markings they can have their identities changed or they can simply be dismantled for spare parts. DataDotDNA fixes the identity problem because the VIN is effectively applied to each bike up to 4000 times”.

The latest theft rate statistics show that in the two years that all new Yamahas have carried DataDotDNA, there has been an 18% drop in theft of new models sold compared to the previous two years. That figure includes bikes stolen and recovered, but the theft rate of bikes stolen and never recovered has shown even better improvement, with the numbers dropping by almost 25%.

Also encouraging is a 23% drop in the number of stolen and unrecovered off-road Yamahas, given that dirt bikes are especially attractive to thieves.

By comparison, another leading motorcycle brand that has not fitted DataDotDNA across its range has shown only a small improvement in theft rates over the same period, which further validates the impressive Yamaha results.

Steven Cotterell, Director/General Manager of Yamaha Motor Australia, says: “YMA is an innovator that is always looking to add value for our customers. Yamaha is the first firm in both our outboard and motorcycle industries to protect its products with DataDotDNA, but we doubt we’ll be the last. We believe that effective anti-theft measures will benefit the whole industry in the long run.”

DataDot Technology Chief Operating Officer, Ben Bootle, added his congratulations to Yamaha. “We have long known of the proven benefits that DataDotDNA delivers to the 24 motor vehicle manufacturers around the world who employ the system on their vehicles, and Yamaha’s success proves the effectiveness and value of the application in motorcycle protection. In addition, the Australian Crime Stoppers organisation endorses all initiatives that use DataDotDNA technology.”
How DataDotDNA works

DataDotDNA is a high grade polyester microdot, around 1 millimetre in diameter, with lines of text applied using a sophisticated laser imaging process. This text includes the unique VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) or PIN (Personal Identification Number) for each vehicle and the manufacturer’s name.

Several thousand DataDotDNA are sprayed or brushed onto high value parts and the chassis/frame of each car or motorcycle using a clear adhesive containing a UV tracer that fluoresces under UV light (Black light). A final layer of security is the inclusion of a synthetic DNA, DatatraceDNA that ensures that the DataDotDNA system can never be counterfeited.

About the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council

The NMVTRC is an initiative of all Australian governments and the insurance industry to develop strategies and implement programs to reduce the levels of car and motorcycle theft in Australia.

For further information:

Sean Goldhawk, Yamaha Motor Australia

Tel: 02 9757 0011 – Mob 0438 423844

Ray Carroll, NMVTRC

Tel: 03 9348 9600

Ben Bootle, DataDot Technology

Tel: 02 8977 4900

Microdot technology forces crooks to give marine property a wide berth

Sydney, Australia – December 14, 2008 (embargoed until 11am):

• An Australian company’s microdot identification technology is at the centre of a new push to prevent crime on New South Wales waterways.
• The technology is featured in a new Crimestopper Marine Crime Prevention and Safety Campaign launched today by the NSW Minister for Police, Tony Kelly, and the NSW Minister for Ports and Waterways, Joe Tripodi.
• Television advertising in early 2009 will encourage people to report crime on and around NSW waterways and 10,000 water proof bags containing theft deterrent information will be distributed by the NSW Police to boat owners on Sydney Harbour and Pittwater.
• The campaign will recommend boat owners mark their boats, outboard motors, marine accessories and other ‘assets’ with thousands of one millimetre microdots laser-etched with multiple lines of unique code.
• The chief executive of the Marina Industries Association of Australia, Mr Colin Bransgrove, said: “‘Protected by DataDotDNA’ signage on boats and around marinas will send a clear message that all valuables are identifiable by Police and are of no value to thieves.”
• DATADOTDNA MARINE ANTI-THEFT KITS can be ordered online at www.datadotdna.com/au

MEDIA ENQUIRIES: DataDot Technology, 1300 300 829  www.datadotdna.com/au

Police Marine Commander Mark Hutchens and NSW Police Minister Tony Kelly

DataDots key to convictions in Taiwan’s biggest ever bust of stolen vehicles

Sydney, Australia – 3 November, 2008:

• The largest ever police bust of stolen motor vehicles in Taiwan in late October has proven the value of an Australian company’s technology in fighting crime.
• In Taiwan, the Government has legislated for mandatory ‘whole of vehicle marking’ of cars since 2005 and more than one in three of these vehicles are spray-marked with
  DataDotDNA (microdots), a technology produced by Sydney-based DataDot Technology.
• DataDot’s chief executive, Mr Ian Allen, said that Taiwanese police had been in touch with the company and engaged it’s service to assist with the forensic examination of some the more than 6,000 major components from almost 1,000 stripped cars. The police produced photographic evidence that thieves had been unable to locate and remove the microdots.
• “Even though Dots are fitted to 40 per cent of the new car fleet in Taiwan, only a small percentage of those stolen cars were fitted with DataDots,” Mr Allen said. “ This demonstrates the most important feature of Dots – deterring the thief from stealing those models.” “Importantly, though, where cars were stolen which had been marked with DataDots, police were able to use the dots to establish the identity of ‘donor’ cars and tell us they now expect this to lead to successful convictions.”
• DataDots are tiny microdots (1 mm) that are laser etched with multiple lines of code. The dots are illuminated by a Black light. The unique code for motor vehicles in Taiwan is the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) as allocated by the car manufacturers. While the microdots can be used for identification, vehicles that have been spray-marked
  also carry large decals saying they are ‘DataDot protected’, as a theft deterrent. Mr Allen said many other vehicles recovered in the bust had been fitted with several adhesive labels to comply with the mandatory marking legislation, but police had provided photographs showing that, unlike the thousands of tiny DataDots on a given car, the labels
  were easily removed.
• Mr Allen said he understood that Taiwanese people whose vehicles were marked with DataDots – with decals showing that their vehicles are protected – were also enjoying reduced insurance premiums.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Ian Allen, Chief Executive, DataDot Technology, +61 416 240 621

Data Dots to help prevent bicycle theft

Crime Stoppers back new technology in lead up to Xmas

Sydney, Australia – December 1, 2008: In the lead up to Christmas, purchasers of bicycles will for the first time be able to use a micro-dot technology to help prevent theft and identify their bicycles if they are stolen.

From this week, 800 leading bicycle retailers across Australia will stock a $25 do-it-yourself DatadotDNA property marking technology.

The technology is already being used in Australia around the world to help prevent theft of luxury cars and identify stolen parts in brands including SAAB, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, VW, Audi, Lexus and Lotus.

Crime Stoppers Australia Chairman Mr Peter Price said the organization had entered into an arrangement with Sydney-based public company DataDot Technology Limited that would encourage Australians to register their bicycles marked with microdots.

“Under this initiative, for about $25 Australians will be able to buy microscopic DatadotDNA dots to place on their bikes,” Mr Price said. “In addition a DatadotDNA decal can be placed on their bikes to show they are protected.”

About 1.1 million bicycles are sold in Australia each year with specialist outlets stocking models worth between $200 and $14,000.

Mr Simon Jackson, DataDot Technology’s project manager on the initiative, said the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics research found bicycles were among the top five stolen items in every Sydney suburb and believed this would be also be the case nationwide.

Crime Stoppers Australia chairman Mr Price confirmed that each year thousands of bikes go ‘missing’. “The exact figure is not tracked by authorities, but hopefully with this initiative metrics can be kept.”

Bicycle owners who buy the kit can register their bikes free on a database at www.datadotdna.com/bicycle

“If a stolen bike with Datadots is found there is a good chance you will get it back,” Mr Price said. “The identifying technology also helps police convict thieves who might otherwise claim the property in their possession was not stolen.”
MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Simon Jackson, DataDot Technology, 0419 418 772, www.datadotdna.com;

Peter Price, Crime Stoppers Australia: 0417 996 600