Over the years, governments and commercial firms have tried to stay ahead of criminals using technologies such as intaglio printing that were not available outside the realm of security printers. New technologies have rendered that approach extremely vulnerable, and a wide range of new security features and methodologies have come forward to replace or augment them.

The fundamentals, however, remain. Simple security features are required. Features that are easily recognized by security services, but simultaneously very difficult to copy, tamper with or counterfeit. They must also be cost-effective to the issuer, and must provide both overt and covert features, allowing their verification on multiple levels, including machine-readability, if desired.

Among the competing devices and materials put forward currently are conventional holograms (2D, 3D, 2D/3D and dot matrix holograms), and tamper evident seals and papers. Unfortunately, each of these "solutions? has been compromised or counterfeited, in whole or in part, primarily as a result of the proliferation of inexpensive technologies for hologram generation worldwide.

The KURZ OVD, the KINEGRAM®, is easy to describe, easy to verify and, unlike holograms, is virtually impossible to counterfeit. The KINEGRAM® has proven effective on over 160 denominations of banknotes worldwide, and on the visas, passports, identification cards, driver's licenses and other government documents of the European Union, Canada and a substantial number of other countries. Because the KINEGRAM® employs technology outside the public domain, and requires an extremely complex manufacturing process, would-be counterfeiters - even organized terrorist groups - find duplicating even the first-line security features of this OVD impractical and, thus, turn their attention to more vulnerable documents issued by other countries.

For over 25 years KURZ has been the pioneer in the development of highly sophisticated Optically Variable Devices (OVDs).

KURZ technology and its investment in research and development, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary OVD Kinegram, are now the acknowledged leaders worldwide in the field of OVD foil development and manufacturing.

Kurz is not a speculative "start-up? promoting conceptual responses to theoretical problems. Kurz is a proven technology leader offering tried-and-tested  solutions for very real and very urgent problems.

KURZ has been established in the United States for many years, and is committed to dedicating its resources within the USA to the manufacture of high security OVDs for governmental applications.