The genuine article: propulsive, compulsive entrepreneur Richard Bard's OpSec seeks brand security.

• Author: Reed, Carson
• Position: Optical Security Group Inc.

PROPULSIVE, COMPULSIVE ENTREPRENEUR RICHARD BARD'S OPSEC SEEKS BRAND SECURITY

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," a Bard once said, though not Richard Bard, who knows better.

Consider these names, for instance: Adidas. Xerox. Stolichnaya. Coke. Kellogg's. These are names so closely associated with their products that reporters sometimes have to be reminded not to use them as generic nouns. These are also a few of Richard Bard's customers, companies that understand that their principal asset never shows up on a balance sheet - companies that understand the value in a name.

Such companies come to Denver-based Optical Security Group Inc., OpSec (NASDAQ: OPSC). Such companies are looking for new ways to deter the growing global legion of counterfeiters, rip-off artists as sophisticated, organized, well-capitalized and high-tech as the companies they rip off. Or more so.

Counterfeiting is a major growth industry. World industrialization, cheap but sophisticated technology and the growth of e-commerce have all been very, very good for counterfeiters, who now rack up an estimated $250 billion to $350 billion in annual sales. According to the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB), a British-based watchdog agency, knock-offs and diverted "gray market" goods now account for 5% to 7% of Gross Planetary Product. The U.S. Customs Service estimates that counterfeit products have cost the United States more than 750,000 manufacturing jobs this decade.

OpSec helps companies deter counterfeiting with an array of sophisticated printed products - tags, stickers, seals, threads and micro dots, some of which are merely difficult to replicate, others of which are laden with information that helps companies not only identify bogus product, but also track legitimate goods.

Bard, a compulsive entrepreneur with a list of enterprises and accomplishments longer than this story, took the helm of what is now OpSec late in 1993. The former CEO of such Fortune 500 companies as Coast-to-Coast hardware and ComputerLand, Bard brought his skills to bear on the Denver-based startup, then named TSL Inc., as a favor to fellow former Coast-to-Coast executive Mark Bar. Bar had partnered with an Israeli inventor named Yoram Curiel, who was working on a brittle resin designed to prevent product tampering.

The company had "no product and no revenues," Bard recalled. "It never worked. It was a mess. I stayed because I felt I had a responsibility to...