Trademark use by certificate holders

FSC certificate holders are granted access to the FSC Trademark Portal and the Marketing Toolkit. The login details are provided by their FSC-accredited certification body.

From the FSC Trademark Portal, a certificate holder is able to:

→ generate FSC on-product labels featuring the certificate holder's unique FSC licence code (in four colour options and two orientations),
→ generate the FSC promotional panel featuring the certificate holder's unique FSC licence code for the off-product promotion (in four colour options and two orientations),
→ download the simple FSC checkmark-and-tree logo with or without the background (in three colour options),
→ control the certification status of its suppliers of FSC materials and products,
→ confirm the trademark registration status (® or ™) for the intended trademark use in one or more countries.

From the Marketing Toolkit, a certificate holder is able to:

→ generate the "Forests For All Forever" – logo with text mark featuring the certificate holder's unique FSC licence code (in six colour options)
→ download the FSC Forest Week 2022 campaign materials,
→ learn more about the B2B and B2C campaigns,
→ download a large variety of assets to print including floor vinyls, hang tags, cut-outs, print ads, roll-ups, shelf wobblers, and other promotional items,
→ select a specific country download the available materials in the specific language.

Now that you have downloaded the necessary FSC labels and other trademarks, it is time to plan their application to your products or other promotional materials! In order to maintain FSC's visual identity and enable consumers to clearly identify an FSC label and product on a shelf, there is a set of defined rules that must be followed when using any FSC trademark.

These are defined in the standard FSC-STD-50-001 Requirements For The Use Of The FSC Trademarks By Certificate Holders. This standard is mandatory for all FSC certificate holders who are entitled to use the FSC trademarks and sets out how to use the FSC trademarks correctly. The standard covers use of the FSC trademarks on FSC certified products, use for promotion of FSC certified products, and for promotion of the company's status as an FSC certificate holder. 

Additionally, a trademark quick guide was also developed based on the FSC Trademark Standard 50-001 (V2-0). This guide provides the core information extracted from the trademark standard with visual examples to help trademark users communicate their commitment and achievements in a simple way. It does not, however, cover all aspects of trademark use. Therefore, should queries arise, please refer to FSC trademark standard 50-001 (V2-0 or V2-1) for detailed information and trademark rules in conjunction with this quick guide.

Certificate holders' intended use of the FSC trademarks must be authorised by their FSC-accredited certification body. Certificate holders must either have an approved trademark use management system in place or submit all intended uses of FSC trademarks to its certification body for approval. Each approval received by a certification body must be stored for a minimum of five years.

The trademark use management system is discussed in Annex A of the FSC-STD-50-001 (page 20).

With the received approval of the intended trademark use by your certification body, you are ready to go ahead and label your products or use FSC trademarks in your graphic materials. Congrats!