The market for product protection, brand protection, and traceability has hitherto been highly fragmented. To offer brand manufacturers a holistic and flexible response to this challenge, Bosch Secure Authentication and Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection are combining their expertise in a new partnership: at Luxe Pack Monaco 2026, the partners are presenting their joint ava platform (a verification app) for the first time.
Guided by the motto “One platform. Many ways to prove authenticity.”, the partners will demonstrate from 28 to 30 September at the Grimaldi Forum how products and packaging can be protected and digitally authenticated without visible features.
One platform for diverse requirements
ava combines various technologies and applications for product authentication, brand protection, and end-to-end traceability. Brands and manufacturers can use the platform to select the solution that best fits their products, packaging, and existing processes. Bosch Secure Authentication contributes the software solutions for visual authentication and the digital identification of physical products. Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection enhances the partnership with its expertise in security and banknote printing.
ava is specifically aimed at companies in the luxury goods, watches, jewellery, spirits, and high-value consumer goods sectors. For them, packaging will be able to deliver more than just design in future: it becomes the carrier of product security, digital identity, and new touchpoints with consumers.
“Currently, manufacturers often have to choose between various isolated protection technologies. With ava, we are overcoming this fragmentation and creating a universal platform for the industry,” explains Oliver Steinbis, technical managing director of Bosch Secure Authentication.
Ovjera: The product itself becomes an authenticity feature
At Luxe Pack, ava can be experienced first-hand through concrete applications for the first time. One of these is Ovjera, a markerless authentication solution for individual products, packaging, or a combination of both. It is based on image-based identification: every product and piece of packaging possesses unique characteristics in its surface structure. These are captured via an image and compared against a previously stored reference. In this way, authenticity can be verified using a smartphone. This works without an additional QR code, without a serial number, and without altering the design.
Atheneum and Aegis
In addition, the partners are showcasing two further innovative solutions from the ava solution portfolio: Atheneum and Aegis. Both products are based on steganographic technology, which integrates invisible information such as codes, images, or logos directly into the packaging without altering its design. While Atheneum embeds the security features directly into the printed image, Aegis utilizes the varnish layer of the packaging; both can be read using a smartphone app. Demonstrators from the watch, champagne, and security document sectors clearly illustrate the various possible applications at the exhibition stand.
“By seamlessly integrating security features directly into the printing process, we create invisible protection that leaves the packaging design completely untouched,” explains Marc Hunsänger, director protection technologies at Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection. In the medium term, ava aims to unite all digital protection mechanisms within a single application, thereby forming a comprehensive solution for end users.
