Trademark Law and Your Business—Protecting Your Brand

Many business owners produce goods that need to conform to a specific standard or certain quality control measures to qualify for a special designation. For example, a business owner who manufactures electrical cords will need to meet specific standards to pass the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certification. After receiving certification, the business owner may include the UL certification mark on their goods. This certification mark signals to the public that the goods meet certain standards in relation to quality, materials, or mode of manufacture. This is important because some vendors will only accept electrical goods that have been certified by UL. Certification marks can serve other purposes as well.

So what is a certification mark? A certification mark is any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination used by a person other than its owner, to certify regional or other origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality, accuracy, or other characteristics of such person’s goods or services or that the work or labor on the goods or services was performed by members of a union or other organization.

The first requirement of a certification mark, then, is that the mark be a word, name, symbol, or device, or combination of those things, just like a regular trademark.

The second requirement is that the mark is used by a person other than its owner. This means that a person who uses the mark cannot be the person who certifies the goods or services of others. This makes sense because of the inherent conflicts the might occur if the same person who owns the mark and certifies others to use the mark is the same person who uses the mark. For example, if UL produced its own electrical cords, then certified itself to use the certification mark, then UL could exclude others who produce electrical cords from becoming certified and using the mark. Unlike regular trademarks, certification marks are not primarily concerned about avoiding confusion the consumer regarding the source of the goods or services. Instead, a certification mark provides information to the consumer regarding the quality, origin, material, or accuracy of the goods or services upon which the mark is placed. Because this information can be important, as in the case of UL certification, owners of certification marks will license the use of their certification mark to business owners.

As a business owner, then, you may want to see if any certification marks exist for your goods or services and decide whether the cost of certification or licensing is worth the expense. For many goods and services, obtaining the use of a certification mark can be essential.

Business owners should check out the latest Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship at Bootstrapper. The Carnival features tons of interesting links written by other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Blawg Review, a synopsis of posts by law bloggers, has been posted at The Invent Blog. You can learn a thing or two about other areas of the law at every Blawg Review.