Business resource
Could Our Trademark Be Working Harder for You?
The team at Ethical Clothing Australia has been working on a project to review how accredited businesses are using the Ethical Clothing Australia trademark. Led by Anja Burril; Accreditation Program Advisor for NSW, TAS, WA, ACT and SA; this project has involved reviewing websites and social media channels to find incorrect uses of the trademark
We caught up with Anja to ask her about all things trademark related.
Hi Anja! Can you tell us why accredited businesses should be using the Ethical Clothing Australia trademark?
One of the major benefits of the Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation is to get access to the Ethical Clothing Australia trademark, which includes the Ethical Clothing Australia name and logo.
I was surprised to see that some businesses don’t mention Ethical Clothing Australia on their website or on social media at all!
I would certainly recommend that businesses advertise their accreditation, so that their audience (whether they be consumers, brands, or procurement managers) are aware of their commitment to local and ethical manufacturing.
Do you think that most accredited businesses are utilising the trademark? If not, what could they be doing?
Through the trademark audit I’ve been working on, I would say that the majority of businesses are under-utilising the Ethical Clothing Australia trademark.
The first step would be to take a look at your business’s website and social media. Check whether you are using the trademark and mentioning Ethical Clothing Australia by name. If you are using the trademark, make sure that you’re doing it correctly – more about that below.
There are lots of way to use the trademark! Here are a few suggestions:
- Add the trademark to the footer bar of your website.
- If you are a brand, add the trademark to your swing tags and garment tags.
- Add the trademark to your newsletters and EDMs.
- Create a dedicated page on your website talking about the accreditation process, and what it means for your business.
- Add the trademark to your bio on social media.
- Add a decal of the trademark onto your factory or store window.
What are the most common trademark mistakes that accredited businesses make?
Firstly, if a business makes 100% of their product in Australia, they can use the Ethical Clothing Australia name and logo without any qualifications. However, if a business makes a majority of their product or specific product lines in Australia, they need to say this every time they display the Ethical Clothing Australia logo or reference their accreditation. You can read more about this on pages 10-11 of the Accreditation Toolkit.
The other issue I most commonly see is businesses not hyperlinking the Ethical Clothing Australia logo to the website homepage. It’s important to link to this page, so readers can learn more about the meaning of the accreditation and the independent audit process.
All businesses must comply with these rules, which are laid out in the Licence Agreement, which is a legal document that every business signs when they first become accredited with Ethical Clothing Australia.
How can businesses find out if they are using the trademark correctly?
The first step is to look at your Licence Agreement. This document sets out the usage of the Ethical Clothing Australia trademark and provides examples of correct and incorrect usage. This information can also be found in Accreditation Toolkit, which has been designed to simplify the information in the Licence Agreement.
The Ethical Clothing Australia team has also started running a new initiative of setting up one-on-one meetings with accredited businesses to discuss how to promote their Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation.
If you’re unsure of whether your business is using the trademark incorrectly, can’t find a copy of your signed Licence Agreement, or want to talk about the marketing of your trademark, reach out by clicking the button below.
