Security Image Register

The Security Image Register (SIR) is a secure registry of holographic images and other optically variable devices (OVD), established by the IHMA to safeguard copyright and underpin the use of OVDs in authentication and security printing.

The SIR is the only system of its kind for the authentication community. The centrally held global database of secure OVDs is operated on behalf of the IHMA by the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB) under the strictest confidence and security that supports ISO14298 (the security standard for the management of security print and security foil production). As part of this standard, foil producers must register all security holograms they produce in a global registry (ie.the SIR).

The SIR enables hologram and OVD manufacturers and producers to verify, at the time a new OVD is being designed or originated, that this design, or elements of it, do not infringe copyright or allow the unintentional copy of existing OVDs. This helps to ensure that the OVD image is not already in use and is the first step for the subsequent registration of the image. The image registration is completed once the design has received clearance.

In addition to IHMA members, the SIR is available to law enforcement agencies to check for the provenance of a design when they need information on a suspect hologram or OVD.

The IHMA also allows approved non-members to register OVDs on the SIR, subject to a fee (SIR registration for IHMA member is included within their membership fee). The fee for non-members is £500.

First established in 1993 as the Hologram Image Register (HIR) and relaunched in 2023 as the SIR to include all optically variable technologies, the SIR includes more than 10,000 registrations (as of the start of 2024), a number that is growing by the day. In early 2022, it underwent a major upgrade, designed to improve user efficiency and effectiveness by enabling faster online registration and copyright checking of OVD designs.

The SIR has, since its inception, helped to prevent numerous attempts to source copy holograms, and has also helped to confirm that a suspect hologram or OVD was, indeed, a fake, which in turn has led to arrests and prosecution of the counterfeiters.

Moreover, registration of an OVD design with the SIR is increasingly a pre-condition of tenders and procurement, particularly by government bodies such as central banks, revenue authorities and issuers of passports and ID documents.

 

Our Partners

The SIR is operated for the IHMA by the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce, a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation accredited by the UN.

The Register is operated in absolute confidence by the CIB. Neither IHMA members nor staff have access to the Register, thereby ensuring that commercial information is not compromised.

The CIB is based in secure premises in London, UK.

Click on the image to access the SIR presentation made at the High Security Printing EMEA 2024 Conference in Sofia

We frequently receive customer inquiries who want to confirm our membership in the IHMA and to confirm we will register their image in the IHMA’s Hologram Image Registry. The customers see a value in having their custom images registered globally.

Mike Messmer

NovaVision

Further Resources

For general enquiries and further information on the SIR and, for non-IHMA members, details of the approval and fees process, please contact the Secretariat