Trademark usage rules

What this document is

Reference document FORM EFNAT 04-H, approved on 25 October 2026, first published on 5 February 2020. It sets out the conditions under which the Effinature certification mark may be used by certified parties: authorised uses, prohibited uses, graphic requirements, and the cases in which the right of use is suspended or withdrawn.

Who does what

• The Effinature word mark was filed with the INPI on 22 April 2010 (no. 3 732 371, published in BOPI 2010-37) and is held by NORMAXIS.
• The standards are owned by NORMATYS, which develops and maintains them and which issues these usage rules; the Biodiversity Standard Council, the scientific and technical committee for the NORMATYS standards, approves their versions.
• IRICE, certification body (Cofrac accreditation No. 5-0655 · Certification of products, processes and services · ISO/IEC 17065 · Scope available on www.cofrac.fr), grants, monitors, suspends or withdraws the right of use, through certification decisions taken under accreditation. This accreditation covers the EFFINATURE and EFFINATURE HVE certification programmes.
• For Effinature HVE certification, any certification body holding a NORMATYS licence for the HVE addendum may also grant, monitor, suspend or withdraw the right of use, under its own accreditation (licence terms).

Principal obligations of the holder

• Use the mark only within the exact scope of the certification decision, and only for as long as that decision remains valid.
• Never use the mark in a way that suggests a certification that has not been granted, or a scope wider than the one certified.
• Comply with the graphic charter set out in the annex to the rules.
• Refrain from using the mark for political, polemical or defamatory purposes.
• On suspension or withdrawal, cease all use of the sign immediately and remove every reference to it.

Referring to accreditation (§5.8)

• Any reference to accreditation is inseparable from the certification granted: it names IRICE as the certification body, the standard applied and the certificate reference.
• It uses the following wording, unaltered: “Certification delivered by IRICE · Cofrac accreditation No. 5-0655 · Certification of products, processes and services · ISO/IEC 17065 · Scope available on www.cofrac.fr”.
• It is placed next to the IRICE name or the Effinature mark, in smaller characters, and only for as long as the certificate is valid.
• It covers only what falls within IRICE's accredited scope, and no other activity of the holder.
• The holder reproduces neither the Cofrac mark nor the accreditation symbol, both are reserved to IRICE, and never presents itself as accredited or approved by Cofrac or by a public authority.
• No reference may suggest that Cofrac, IRICE, NORMATYS or NORMAXIS guarantee the product, process or service beyond the conformity established against the standard.
• Reports, opinions and attestations issued by IRICE are reproduced in full and unaltered, never selectively.

The detailed arrangements for suspension and withdrawal are set out in Article 10 of the French text, and summarised in §4 of the scheme conditions.

Revision

NORMATYS, as owner of the standards, keeps the rules under review in the light of developments in the activity concerned and revises them where necessary. Applicants and holders are notified of any revision by IRICE.