In the USA, a chartered mark is a trademark or service mark which is given special statutory protection separate from the usual registration of trade marks and service marks. A chartered mark, in effect, is a type of trademark/servicemark in which the organization is granted the mark "by charter", i.e. by express grant of the legislature. When an organization is granted a chartered mark, no one else may use the same mark at all for any purpose. (There are possible exceptions for organizations using the same or a similar mark before it was chartered.)
Examples of chartered marks in the United States include FDIC for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA, respectively; and Olympic for the United States Olympic Committee.
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Famous quotes containing the words chartered and/or mark:
“The chartered recountants take the thing to pieces and put it together again. They enjoy it. The artist takes it to pieces and makes a new thing, new things. He must.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“The gap between ideals and actualities, between dreams and achievements, the gap that can spur strong men to increased exertions, but can break the spirit of others—this gap is the most conspicuous, continuous land mark in American history. It is conspicuous and continuous not because Americans achieve little, but because they dream grandly. The gap is a standing reproach to Americans; but it marks them off as a special and singularly admirable community among the world’s peoples.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)