Determination of counterfeit products via certified quick response codes and a trusted product certificate authority

A method performed by a server for determining a counterfeit product, with a counterfeit determination process comprising:

• a. receiving, via a communication interface, scan data produced by scanning a Certified Quick Response (CQR) code affixed to a product from a user device, the CQR code encoding a product-specific uniform resource locator (URL) comprising a top-level domain (TLD) associated with a trusted Product Certificate Authority (PCA), the scan data including the product-specific URL, a product identifier, and associated attribute data comprising at least one of:
• a unique universal identifier (UUID), a global trade item number (GTIN), a batch identifier, at least a portion of a public key, at least a portion of a private key, a scan time, a scan date, a geographic scan location, a user device identifier, and a hash value associated with the product and certified by the PCA;
• b. comparing the associated attribute data with stored authentic attribute data in a server-accessible database;
• c. determining a likelihood of counterfeiting based on at least one of:
• (i) a discrepancy between the associated attribute data and the stored authentic attribute data,
• (ii) inconsistencies between multiple recorded scan events associated with the product identifier, including differences in the recorded scan time, the recorded scan date, and the geographic scan location beyond predetermined thresholds, and
• (iii) an invalid or unrecognized PCA-associated TLD included in the product-specific URL;
• and
• d. transmitting a notification to the user device if the likelihood exceeds a predetermined threshold.