Certification Mark

A certification mark on a commercial product may indicates several things:

• The existence of a 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 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 the listee, or manufacturer, uses the mark to indicate eligibility of the products for use in field installations in accordance with the requirements of the code, and/or the origin, material, mode of manufacture of products, mode of performance of services, quality, accuracy of other characteristics of products or services.

Counterfeit consumer goods sometimes have bogus certification marks.