A collective trade mark or collective mark is a trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 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 mark

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...

s. 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.

Regulations on use

National trade mark laws in some countries (such as Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

) provide for the filing of the regulations as an additional requirement for registration of the collective trade mark.

The regulations shall normally specify:

• the name and seat of the organization,
• information on the members authorized to use the collective trade mark, including their names, addresses and seats,
• the conditions of membership,
• the conditions of use of the collective trade mark,
• the prescriptions relating to the control of the use of the collective trade mark,
• the order of proceedings against unauthorized use of the collective trade mark.

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

International treaties

Many jurisdictions have been required to amend their trade mark legislation in order to accommodate the requirement of protection of collective marks under TRIPs. Art. 7 bis of the Paris Convention

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on March 20, 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property...

 also requires signatories "to accept for filing and to protect collective marks belonging to associations the existence of which is not contrary to the law of the country of origin, even if such organizations do not possess an industrial or commercial establishment."

Examples

Examples of collective trade marks include

• the "CA" device used by the Institute of Chartered Accountant
  Accountant
  An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
  
  s.
• the mark "CPA", used to indicate members of the Society of Certified Public Accountant
  Certified Public Accountant
  Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
  
  s.
• the marks of various confederated lobby groups.

Related cases

• The Parma Ham case [1991] RPC 251, in which the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma sued for passing off their unregistered collective mark;
• Association of Certified Public Accountants v. Trade Secretary [1998] 1 WLR 164.