Saturday, 01 April 2017
Draft FSC Trademark Standard Open for Consultation until April 30
April 5, 2017
All stakeholders are invited to comment on the second draft of the Trademark Standard FSC-STD-50-001 – Requirements for Use of the FSC Trademarks by Certificate Holders – through our new FSC Consultation Platform. The deadline for commenting is April 30, 2017.
Why are we revising the Trademark Standard FSC-STD-50-001?
The objective of the revision is to streamline the trademark requirements to enhance and ease the labelling and promotion of FSC-certified products. The revision also addresses Motion 29 (The Logo Motion) and Motion 36 (Addressing Market Confusion and Deceptive Practices), which were passed at the FSC General Assembly 2014.
- What are the main changes in the draft revised standard?
- Introduction of a trademark use management system as an alternative to submitting all FSC trademark use to the certification body for approval.
- Introduction of guidance on how to describe FSC and products with FSC claims.
- Removal of some restrictions, including those on general promotion if no FSC sales or production have taken place for 12 months and the use of trademarks at the top of document templates.
- Greater flexibility in choosing labelling elements.
- Reduced size requirements for all marks and greater flexibility in the placement of on-product labels.
- Integration of the advice notes on labelling products from small and community producers (FSC-ADV-50-003) and on the requirements for the use of the ‘Forests For All Forever’ marks (FSC-ADV-50-004).
- To assist stakeholders in reviewing the proposed changes in the standard, FSC has provided a crosswalk document describing, clause by clause, the differences between the current standard and the revised draft. The crosswalk, along with all of the consultation documents, can be found on the consultation website.
New FSC Consultation Platform to be used for second consultation
This consultation is being carried out using the new Consultation Platform. We hope this tool will simplify the consultation process. Stakeholders can now read the relevant documents, submit their comments, and provide answers to the consultation questions via a single web page. They can also jump directly to the sections of the standard they are most interested in.
A link to the Consultation Platform can be found on the consultation web page. Once registered for the Consultation Platform, you will find the relevant documentation and you can submit your comments directly from the website. You can also begin drafting comments, save your progress and return to your comments at a later time.
A series of webinars was held for stakeholders to learn more about the draft standard. To download a recording of the webinar, visit the consultation web page.
We encourage all stakeholders to join the consultation. Your feedback will help us further shape the standard to enhance and ease the labelling and promotion of FSC-certified products.
Please contact Jenny Anderson (j.anderson@us.fsc.org) with questions.