Collective Marks and Certification Marks
It is a defining feature of ‘ordinary’, individual trade marks that they indicate a single commercial source. Collective marks and certification marks, by contrast, are meant to signify membership in an association, or a particular quality, or compliance with other, specific conditions. Furthermore, while an individual mark’s quality function, that is, consumer expectations with regard to the quality level and the consistency of product characteristics, is in most cases only indirectly protected, meaning that competitors or members of the public cannot request sanctions under trade mark law in case that quality changes occur (see Chapter 7, sections 7.2.3 and 7.6.4.4.2), collective marks and certification marks risk losing their validity when the standards they are meant to indicate are neglected.