Trademark use by non-certified companies

If you buy FSC-labelled products from an FSC-certified supplier and either use them in your business (e.g. toilet rolls, office paper) or sell them on, unchanged, to the public, a promotional licence may offer an alternative to chain of custody certification.

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Promotional licence or certification?
Eligibility

A promotional licence allows a company to use the FSC trademarks promotionally, but does not allow it to apply the FSC trademarks to products or sales documents.

If you want to apply an FSC label to your products yourself and/or sell them with an FSC claim, or if you are involved in the processing or transformation of FSC-certified products (e.g. manufacturing, repackaging, pack-splitting, relabelling, cutting to size or adding other forest-based components to the product) you will need FSC chain of custody certification.

→ Retailers that buy finished, FSC-labelled products and sell them on unchanged to end-users (e.g. the general public)
Organisations that wish to promote their use of FSC-certified products in their activities e.g. a company using FSC-certified packaging for their products
Consultantstraining companies and investment organisations working within the environmental sector
Parent or holding companies that own several FSC-certified companies or branches

Becoming a promotional license holder

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Get in touch

Contact us - we will assess whether your organisation is eligible to hold a promotional licence.

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Apply

Complete an application form.

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Provide evidence

Provide evidence of the certified status of any FSC-certified products your organisation sells/uses. This might entail forwarding us your supplier's invoices (cleared of sensitive data such as prices and quantities) to confirm that your suppliers are certified for the product categories they sell to you.

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Fees and signing

We will confirm your licence fee and send you a Promotional License Agreement (PLA) to sign. Upon signing, you will receive access to the FSC logo and other FSC trademarks, and your unique license number. The Agreement must be signed by the legal representative of your company.

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Get up to speed

Learn how to use your licence and the FSC trademarks by referring to a document FSC Trademark Use Guide for Promotional Licence Holders.

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And go!

You are now ready to create promotional messages using FSC trademarks! Remember that each intended FSC trademark use must first be approved by you Trademark Service Provider.

See below some examples of promotion of FSC-certified products with FSC trademarks in the Adria-Balkan Region.

FSC Trademark Use Guide for Promotional Licence Holders.pdf
PDF, Size: 5.17MB
Vodič za korištenje FSC® zaštićenih oznaka za nositelje promotivne licence
PDF, Size: 11.95MB