Certification mark

A certification mark on a commercial product indicates five things:

- The existence of a legal follow-up or product certification agreement between the manufacturer of a product and an organization with national accreditation for both testing and certification,

- Legal evidence that the product was successfully tested in accordance with a nationally accredited standard,

- Legal assurance the accredited certification organization has ensured that the item that was successfully tested and is identical to that which is being offered for sale,

- Legal assurance that the successful test has resulted in a certification listing, which is considered public information, which sets out the tolerances and conditions of use for the certified product, to enable compliance with the law through listing and approval use and compliance,

- Legal assurance that the manufacturer is being regularly audited by the certification organization to ensure the maintenance of the original process standard that was employed in the manufacture of the test specimen that passed the test. If the manufacturer should fail an audit, all product that was certified, including labels of stock on hand, on construction sites, with end-user customers and on distributor store shelves, can be mandated by the certification organization in charge to be immediately removed, and can insist that all stakeholders be informed that the de-listed product certification is no longer eligible for use in field installations.

On the part of the certifier, the label itself is a type of trademark whereby manufacturer uses the mark to indicate eligibility of the products for use in field installations in accordance with the requirements of the code, and the origin, material, mode of manufacture of products, mode of performance of services, quality, and accuracy of other characteristics of products or services.

Certification marks differ from collective trade marks. The main difference is that collective trade marks may be used by particular members of the organization which owns them, while certification marks are the only evidence of the existence of follow-up agreements between manufacturers and nationally accredited testing and certification organizations. Certification organizations charge for the use of their labels and are thus always aware of exact production numbers. In this way, certification organizations can be seen to earn a commission from sales of products under their follow-up regimes. In return, the use of the certification marks enables the product sales in the first place.

Regulations concerning the use of certification marks. Trademark laws in countries which provide for the filing of applications to register certificate marks also usually require the submission of regulations which set out a number of matters, including:

- the people authorized to use the certification mark

- the characteristics to be certified by the certification mark

- how the certifying or standard tests these characteristics and supervises the use of the mark

- dispute resolution procedures.

The main purpose of the regulations is to protect consumers against misleading practices.

UNIT 6

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE