Collective Trade Mark

A collective trade mark or collective mark is a trademark owned by an organization (such as an association), whose members use them to identify themselves with a level of quality or accuracy, geographical origin, or other characteristics set by the organization.

Collective trade marks are exceptions to the underlying principle of trade marks in that most trade marks serve as "badges of origin"; they indicate the individual source of the goods or services. A collective trade mark, however, can be used by a variety of traders, rather than just one individual concern, provided that the trader belongs to the association.

Collective trade marks differ from certification marks. The main difference is that collective trade marks may be used by particular members of the organization which owns them, while certification marks may be used by anybody who complies with the standards defined by the owner of the particular certification mark.

Read more about Collective Trade Mark:  Regulations On Use, International Treaties, Examples, Related Cases

Famous quotes containing the words collective, trade and/or mark:

    Anyone who is kind to man knows the fragmentariness of most men, and wants to arrange a society of power in which men fall naturally into a collective wholeness, since they cannot have an individual wholeness. In this collective wholeness they will be fulfilled. But if they make efforts at individual fulfilment, they must fail for they are by nature fragmentary.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    The confirmation of Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative voices to be added to the [Supreme] Court in recent memory, carries a sobering message for the African- American community.... As he begins to make his mark upon the lives of African Americans, we must acknowledge that his successful nomination is due in no small measure to the support he received from black Americans.
    Kimberly Crenshaw (b. 1959)