Terms of use

This website contains copyright material, trademarks and other proprietary information protected by intellectual property rights. All use of the website is subject to the terms and conditions set forth below. We may amend these terms at any time by posting the amended terms on this site.


Copyright

This website contains two different types of copyright material: The IBCS® Standards (“Standards”) are provided by the IBCS Association. All other material (“Other Material”) is owned by the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute.

Usage of the IBCS® Standards under a Creative Commons license

The IBCS® Standards (“Standards”) provided by the IBCS Association are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International License (referred to as “CC BY-SA license”). You may use the Standards in any way you wish, without having to pay license fees, but only if you meet the conditions set out in the CC BY-SA license.

If you are already familiar with Creative Commons Licenses and just looking for proper ways of attribution and giving credits see here. Otherwise the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions (see also sidebar) should be helpful if you want to use, adapt and share the Standards.

Copyright

All Other Material restricted to personal use only

The HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute, its licensors, or authorised contributors own the copyright of all content published on this website other than the IBCS® Standards (“Other Material”).

You may download Other Material from the website for your own personal use only. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, publication or commercial exploitation of Other Material will be permitted without our express permission or that of the copyright owner. In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution or publication of copyright material, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademark legend or copyright notice shall be made. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading copyright material.


Trademarks

The HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute owns and oversees all IBCS® Trademarks. IBCS® Trademarks collectively describes all registered word marks (in particular “IBCS®” and “SUCCESS”), logos and emblems (e.g. the HI-LO emblem) and other names of products and services (“offering names”) used by the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute and the IBCS Association.

The guidelines serve as an instruction for the IBCS® community regarding the use of the IBCS® Trademarks. The “community” consists of related persons and businesses and also of anyone else who is interested in the IBCS® approach to business communication. “IBCS® related persons and businesses” are individuals or entities who have been certified by the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute or have signed individual license and cooperation agreements (like IBCS® Certified Consultants).

Any use of any IBCS® Trademark must comply with these guidelines. Any use beyond the scope of use that is expressly permitted by these guidelines requires a certification, a license agreement or other form of prior written consent. If you are in doubt about whether the way you intend to use any IBCS® Trademarks or logos conforms to the guidelines, please contact us for clarification.

If you are interested in a cooperation with or certification by the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute, please contact us.

Why regulate the use of IBCS® Trademarks

These guidelines seek to balance two opposing interests. On the one hand the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute explicitly encourages everyone in the community to spread the word about IBCS® and to talk and discuss about the standards and offerings. On the other hand it is paramount for the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute to make sure that the IBCS Trademarks remain reliable indicators of the origin of the offerings and the quality IBCS® stands for.

Trademarks serve to distinguish the goods and services of one organization from those of another organization; they serve as an indicator of the origin of products to the public and as a vehicle for an organization’s message. To preserve the image of quality that consumers associate with IBCS®, it is important to preserve strong trademarks in order to avoid confusion by giving a clear guideline to those who are free to use IBCS® Trademarks. And by taking clear actions against those who try to unfairly profit from IBCS® reputation or to trick or confuse people who are looking for official IBCS® resources.

When you can use IBCS® Trademarks

Use of the IBCS® logos is always subject to a certification, license agreement or other form of prior written consent.

Feel free to mention the IBCS® word marks in any kind of journalistic or other neutral report, article or discussion about the standards and offerings and IBCS® organizations and your own experiences therewith. In those cases, please make sure it is clear to the reader or listener that you are reporting about IBCS® and not in the name of an IBCS® organization.

You may mention IBCS® word marks when describing the relation of your own products and services to IBCS® in running text. Then you must make a clear distinction between your own products or services and ours either visually or by the wording. Any impression of an existing business relation between you or your business and IBCS® organizations has to be strictly avoided if there is no such relation. It is particularly important to avoid using an IBCS® Trademark in an exposed position, for example in a title, cover or headline of product packaging or any other material or on trade show signage, etc.

Trademarks

We do not allow any use of IBCS® Trademarks as a product or service name, project name or title, domain, logo or company name or as a part thereof without our express written permission. For example, names such as “IBCS Chart Factory”, “MyReporting IBCS Add-In” are strictly prohibited.

Do not state or imply that your products or services are produced, certified or authorized by any IBCS® organization without express approval from the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute. For example, do not characterize your product as “… powered by IBCS” or represent your training programs as “authorized IBCS training” without our written permission.

We do not allow any use of IBCS® Trademarks in advertising, including web search advertisement like AdSense and AdWords without our express written permission.

How you can use IBCS® Trademarks

Whenever you use IBCS® Trademarks in accordance with the above, please do as follows:

Spelling: Always refer to an IBCS® Trademark using the correct spelling with the correct capitalization. Do not alter the trademark in any way. For example, it is incorrect to say “ibcs” and “I-BCS”, it is correct to say “IBCS”.

Symbol: Include the appropriate symbol ® or (R) to the registered IBCS® Trademarks. For example: “The IBCS® Notation Manual contains best practices for the design of management reports”.

Scope: The trademark IBCS® applies to all goods or services delivered by the IBCS Association and the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute – anything you can obtain from these organizations. Therefore you say IBCS® presentation, IBCS® poster, IBCS® training, and so on.

Possessive form: Do not use IBCS® Trademarks in possessive form. For example, it is incorrect to say “Training of IBCS®”. It is correct to say “IBCS® training”.

IBCS Association and IBCS Institute: When referring to the IBCS Association or the IBCS Institute, the ®-sign is omitted.

IBCS® logos: IBCS® logos are not to be used in any form without prior written consent.

Trademark attribution

Please include the correct attribution statement containing the reference to the respective IBCS® Trademark in any material that mentions any IBCS® Trademark:

“[IBCS® TRADEMARK] is a registered trademark of the HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute.”

Place the statement either on the copyright page (which may be the case in a brochure) or at the end of a material if it has no copyright page (in an advertisement or a press release, for example).


Disclaimer of warranties and limitations of liability

This site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. The HICHERT+FAISST IBCS Institute and the IBCS Association make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operations of this site, or the information, content or material included on this site. You expressly agree that your use of this site is at your sole risk.