Trademark Guidelines

Equity in the Center’s trademarks, service marks and logos (“Trademarks”) represent intellectual property rights owned by Equity In The Center and as such are valued assets of Equity In The Center These Trademarks, whether registered or unregistered, must be used in accordance with these Trademark Usage Guidelines (“Guidelines”).

 

Any use of anEquity In The Center Trademark requires an appropriate license agreement. Requests for a trademark license may be submitted to communications@equityinthecenter.org. By using anyEquity In The Center Trademarks, you are acknowledging that Equity in the Center is the sole owner of the Trademarks and agreeing not to interfere with Equity In The Center’s rights in the Trademarks, including challenging Equity In The Center’s use, registration of, or application to register such Trademarks. You agree that you will not harm, misuse, or bring into disrepute any Equity In The Center Trademarks and that the goodwill, if any, derived from your use of any Equity In The Center Trademarks exclusively inures to the benefit of and belongs to Equity In The Center. You may not use any Equity In The Center Trademarks in metatags, search fields, hidden text, or any other form that has the purpose or effect of diverting or confusing consumers without Equity In The Center’s prior written permission.
Other product or service names or trademarks, including those appearing on Equity In The Center’s websites, that are not owned by Equity In The Center are for identification purposes only and may be the registered or unregistered trademarks of their respective owners. No license or right is granted by Equity In The Center by implication, estoppel or otherwise to any such third party names or trademarks or to the Equity In The Center Trademarks hereby.

Applicability of Guidelines

These Guidelines apply to Equity In The Center employees, clients, licensees, consultants, outside vendors, and other third parties. Note that if you are a licensee of an Equity In The Center Trademark, the license agreement that you signed with Equity In The Center may contain specific usage guidelines that differ from those contained within these Guidelines, and in such case you should follow those specific guidelines provided within such license agreement. If you are a licensee, but have been provided no special guidelines, then follow these Guidelines.

 

List of Equity in the Center Trademarks

The list of Equity In The Center Trademarks provided here may be updated with new information from time-to-time and without notice and should be referred to regularly. Note that the list may not be comprehensive, and the omission of an Equity In The Center Trademark from the list does not represent any waiver of any intellectual property rights of Equity In The Center in or to such Trademark.. If in doubt about whether or not a particular name, mark or logo is an Equity In The Center Trademark, or if you have any questions about the use of Equity In The Center’s Trademarks, contact communications@equityinthecenter.org, for assistance.

United States

  • Equity In The Center®
  • Race Equity Cycle®
  • Race Equity Culture™
  • Race Equity Cycle Pulse Check™
  • Awake to Woke to Work®

Canada

  • Equity In The Center™
  • Race Equity Culture™
  • Race Equity Cycle™
  • Race Equity Cycle Pulse Check™
  • Awake to Woke to Work™

United Kingdom

  • Equity In The Center®
  • Race Equity Cycle®
  • Awake to Woke to Work®

When typing on Macs:

For the Copyright symbol (©), option + G
For the Trademark symbol (TM), option + 2
For the Registered symbol (®), option + R

When typing on Windows:

For the Copyright symbol (©), hold the Alt key down and type 0169.
For the Trademark symbol (TM), hold the Alt key down and type 0153.
For the Registered symbol (®), hold the Alt key down and type 0174.

 

Do’s and Dont’s of Proper Trademark Notice 

In all marketing materials that will be distributed in the United States, ensure that you:

  • Properly identify (with ®, ™ or SM as applicable) each Equity In The Center Trademark at the first and most prominent use (most often in the headline or heading) and again in the first occurrence in the body of the text.
    • Generally, demarcation is not necessary for every occurrence of a trademark or service mark in an article, press release, advertisement, or on a website, etc. When in doubt, however, err on the side of “over-marking.”
  • Use the superscript ® symbol for Equity In The Center Trademarks that are federally registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
    • E.g., Equity In The Center®; Race Equity Cycle®, Awake to Woke to Work®
  • Use the superscript ™ symbol for unregistered Equity In The Center Trademarks used in connection with goods and/or services offered by Equity In The Center in the United States.
    • E.g., Race Equity Culture™; Race Equity Cycle Pulse Check™
  • Apply the proper designation on any depictions of logos in the top right corner of the depiction.
  • Distinguish Equity In The Center Trademarks from surrounding text by using capital letters, bold type, italics, color, underlining, quotation marks, or a stylized format that differs from the surrounding text.
  • Use the trademark consistently, including the same spelling, punctuation, and spacing.
  • Use Equity In The Center Trademarks in the way they are intended to be used.  Do not use the Trademarks for products or services for which they are not originally intended.  Do not alter a Trademark in any way.
  • Use trademarks as adjectives, not nouns.
    • E.g., “I need a Kleenex tissue,” not “I need a Kleenex.”
    • E.g., “The first module is training on the Race Equity Cycle® framework for organizational transformation,” not “The first module is training on the Race Equity Cycle®.”
  • Never use a trademark as a verb.
    • E.g., “You are not xeroxing; you are using a XEROX machine.”
  • Never use a trademark in the possessive form unless the mark itself is possessive or it is functioning as a trade name or company name (as in the example below).
    • E.g., You may say “Equity In The Center® business and management consulting services are first in class.”
    • E.g., Do not say “Equity In The Center’s business and management consulting services are first in class.”
  • **Before using Equity In The Center Trademarks outside of the United States, please first check with us at communications@equityinthecenter.org, regarding the appropriate notice of registration. Demarcation practices vary from country to country and, logically, marking should be in the local language(s) or otherwise meaningful to local consumers.
    • In most countries, the TM symbol is recognized as identifying an unregistered trademark, and the SM symbol is used to identify an unregistered service mark (a mark used in connection with a company’s services rather than with goods).  Most countries have also adopted the ® symbol to identify a registered trademark or service mark.  However, certain countries have other symbols and designations, including “Marca Registrada” or “MR” in some countries where Spanish is the dominant language, and “Marque Déposée,” “Marque de Commerce,” or their abbreviations, “MD” and “MC,” in some countries where French is the dominant language.

 

Proper Trademark Attribution of Ownership

In addition to proper use of trademarks and symbols, ensure that you include a proper trademark ownership notice that identifies each Equity In The Center Trademark used as being owned by Equity In The Center. Typically, this attribution of ownership statement should be included at the end of the marketing material, such as printed brochures, blog posts, video material, and on the Equity In The Center website more generally. An example of a trademark ownership attribution statement is:

“Equity In The Center®, Race Equity Cycle®, Awake to Woke to Work®, Race Equity Culture™, and Race Equity Cycle Pulse Check™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Equity In The Center in the United States.”

 

Using Trademarks on Social Media

On social media (e.g., Instagram post captions), you do not need to designate the trademark every single time a trademarked term is used or write the trademarked term in capital letters. Instead, use ®, ™, or SM only the first time a trademark is used in the caption, and always capitalize the first letter in the term (e.g., “Race Equity Culture™”).