Authentication of source, plus, for goods and services system, method, and components

A unique identifier is created for each article (clothing, accessories, jewels, fragrances, manufactures, etc.) for which the provider of the article desires to authenticate its Brand source to the party acquiring the article to substantiate to that acquiring party that they are receiving a genuine article. The unique identifier is so provided from a secure third party that also stores the unique identifier, possibly with other historical information, in a secure data base accessable only by authorized parties. The unique identifier may be provided on tags to be carried by the respective article or it may be applied directly to the article as by direct part marking from the material of the article and when so provided it includes a brand source identifier of the party providing the unique identifier as an additional protective measure. The unique identifier furthermore may be provided as an encoded, imageable symbology such as a "Data Matrix".