The seal is yours to show, unaltered.

1 · Where you may use the seal

While your certificate is active you may use the seal to promote the certified product, online and off. That includes your website and product pages; marketplace and retail listings; packaging and labels where the certification applies; printed material, catalogues, brochures and price lists; trade shows, markets, exhibitions and retail displays; email, newsletters and social media; and pitch material to retailers, distributors and press.

You do not need to ask us each time, and there is no extra charge for any of it.

2 · Only for what was certified

Use the seal only for the product line and the claims the certificate covers, and only while it is valid. Do not use it on a product, a variant, a size or a claim the certificate does not cover, and do not use it in a way that suggests the certification reaches further than it does.

If a product changes — a formulation, a supplier, a process, or where it is made — the certificate may no longer describe it. Tell us before you keep using the seal on it.

3 · Do not modify the seal in any way

The seal must be used exactly as supplied. Do not modify it in any way. Do not redraw it, recolour it, tint it to match a brand, crop it, stretch it, rotate it, outline it, add effects to it, animate it, or add anything to it or take anything away from it.

Use the artwork from your own account rather than a copy from anywhere else, keep it at a size where the number is legible, and do not place it on a background or at an angle where it cannot be read. Do not obscure, cover or set the certificate number in your own type.

4 · Show the number

The seal carries a six-digit number, and it is what makes the seal checkable. Show it with the seal, wherever the seal appears. Anyone can enter it in the public register or at verify a seal and see what it certifies.

Using the seal with the number removed or altered, or presenting a number that does not belong to the product it is shown with, is a breach of these terms.

5 · What the seal does not say

The seal is a record of certification, not an endorsement, a ranking or a guarantee of quality. Do not describe ArtisanCheck as approving, recommending, preferring, ranking or endorsing your business or your product, and do not suggest a partnership, sponsorship or agency beyond certification.

Do not use our name or mark in a way that suggests we make, sell, distribute or stand behind your product — because we do not. We are independent, and we do not review, rank, score, promote or sell placement.

6 · If these rules are not followed

If the seal is used outside these terms, the certificate is cancelled and the right to use the seal ends with it. That applies to using the seal for a product that is not certified, to a modified seal, to a seal shown with an altered number, and to a seal left in place after a certificate has expired, been cancelled or been revoked.

Where that happens, we will tell you what has to be removed and by when, and the register will show the certificate as cancelled. Continued use after that is a breach of the terms of service.

7 · Who owns the seal

The seal artwork, the ArtisanCheck name and mark, and the certificate remain ours. These terms give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the seal to promote the certified product while the certificate is active — and nothing more.

You may not sublicense the seal, sell it, or include it in a service you provide to others, and you may not pass it to a distributor, an agency or a marketplace to apply on its own initiative.

The ArtisanCheck name, the seal, and the words Certified Artisan Vendor and Certified Artisan Product are certification marks: they exist to show that a business or a product has been certified by us, and that is the only thing they may be used to say. They are not a brand a maker can adopt, they may not be used as, or as part of, another mark or a product name, and no use of them transfers any right in them. A use that would suggest a wider relationship with us — endorsement, partnership, sponsorship, or membership of a scheme we run — is not permitted.

8 · When your certificate ends

When a certificate expires, is cancelled or is revoked, stop using the seal and take it off the material you control: your site, your listings, your templates and your marketing. Printed material already in the market may be used up within a short and reasonable period — tell us if that applies, and say what is out there.

Your certificate record stays in the register, so anyone who looked the number up earlier can see how the certification ended.

9 · Getting the artwork

The current seal artwork, carrying your number, is available in your account for the life of the certificate, in the formats you need for print and for screen. Use those files. Do not rebuild the seal from a screenshot, a photograph or an older download.

10 · Questions

If you want to use the seal somewhere these terms do not obviously cover — a co-branded product, a retailer's own catalogue, a packaging redesign — ask first at [email protected]. It is usually a short answer.

See also the standard, the claims library, the terms of service and the privacy policy.