Both the FTC Guides and the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act regulate the manufacture, sale and advertising of precious metal jewelry and objects.\u00a0 However, they differ in one very important way:\u00a0 penalties.\u00a0 The Guides provide for civil enforcement by the government.\u00a0 The penalties available under the Stamping Act are much more extensive.\u00a0 They include forfeiture, fines and prison. <\/p>\n
If a manufacturer stamps the fineness on a piece of gold or silver jewelry, a trademark must be stamped in close proximity to the quality mark.\u00a0 This makes it easy for the consumer to quickly trace any manufacturer who is providing substandard or fraudulent products.<\/p>\n
GOLD
\nThe most common marks for gold jewelry are \u201c18K\u201d or \u201c750\u201d (signifying 75% gold), \u201c14K\u201d or \u201c583\u201d (58% gold) and \u201c10K\u201d or \u201c416\u201d (42% gold).\u00a0 In order to use the word \u201cGold\u201d to describe a product, the product must contain a minimum of 10K fineness pure gold throughout. However, use of the word \u201cGold\u201d without qualification must properly describe a product of \u201c24K\u201d or \u201c99.9%\u201d pure gold throughout.\u00a0 If a product is stamped \u201c14K\u201d or \u201c583\u201d, it must contain a minimum of 580 parts per thousand pure gold (see chart).\u00a0 If a product contains solder, a higher tolerance of .7% is permitted (see chart).
\nSILVER
\nIf an article is stamped \u201cSterling\u201d or \u201cSterling Silver\u201d, it should contain at least 925\/1000ths pure silver or .925 pure silver.\u00a0 If solder is used, it shall not vary by more than 4\/1000ths from the fineness indicated by the quality mark (see chart).
\nPLATINUM
\nIn 1997, the FTC revised the guidelines for platinum to simplify and better reflect international standards.\u00a0 The most common marks for platinum jewelry are \u201cPt.,\u201d \u201cPlat.,\u201d \u201c950Plat.,\u201d (all signifying 95% pure platinum) and \u201c900 Pt.,\u201d or \u201c900 Plat.,\u201d (signifying 90% pure platinum).\u00a0 In order for a piece to be stamped \u201cPlatinum\u201d without the use of any qualifying statement it must contain 950 parts per thousand or more of pure platinum.\u00a0 There are no additional tolerances for soldered platinum products.\u00a0 500 parts per thousand pure platinum is the minimum amount allowed under U.S. law for a product to be designated as \u201cPlatinum\u201d in any context.
\nWhat is a Trademark?
\nA trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others.\u00a0 Anyone who claims rights with a mark may use the symbol \u2122 to alert the public to the claim.\u00a0 It is not necessary to have a registration, or even a pending application, to use this designation.\u00a0 Use of the symbol \u2122 does not necessarily mean that any claimed trademark rights are valid. The registration symbol \u00ae, however, may only be used when the mark is registered with the Patent and Trademark Office.\u00a0 It is improper to use this symbol at any point before a registration has issued.
\nWhat is a Patent?
\nA patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office.\u00a0 The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees.\u00a0 US patent grants are effective only within the United States, United States territories, and United States possessions.\u00a0 The right conferred by the patent grant is, \u201cthe right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling\u201d the invention in the United States or \u201cimporting\u201d the invention into the United States.\u00a0 What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.
\nA manufacturer or seller of an article can inform the public that an application for a patent on the article is on file with the Patent and Trademark Office by using the term \u201cpatent pending.\u201d\u00a0 Once a patent has been approved, the manufacturer or seller can list the patent number in its publications.\u00a0 However, the law imposes a fine on those who make false claims to deceive the public.
\nIf you need further information concerning the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act or Trademarks and Patents, please contact one of the following:
\nHoover & Strong would like to offer its thanks to the Jewelers Vigilance Committee for its guidance in preparing this article.<\/p>\n
by Ceilia Baurer, JVC
\nJewelers Vigilance Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both the FTC Guides and the National Gold and Silver Stamping Act regulate the manufacture, sale and advertising of precious metal jewelry and objects.\u00a0 However, they differ in one very important way:\u00a0 penalties.\u00a0 The Guides provide for civil enforcement by the government.\u00a0 The penalties available under the Stamping Act are much more extensive.\u00a0 They include…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[90,93,92,91],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}