Trademark violation?
The latest trend among some predatory publishers is to display the ISO (International Standards Organization) logo on their websites. They do this to make themselves look legitimate. I don’t think any of them are using the logo appropriately, and I think the ones that state they have an ISO certification are lying.
Some just add the ISO logo to their websites, but I’ve seen a number of predatory journals that claim to be ISO 9001:2008 certified, some without using the logo.
According to Wikipedia,
The ISO 9000 family of standards is related to quality management systems and designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholder
Certified? They can’t even get their images to display. Plus their grammar and spacing are atrocious!
According to the ISO’s website:
The ISO logo is a registered trademark. Unless authorized by ISO, use of its logo is prohibited. Notably, ISO will not allow its logo to be used in connection with conformity assessment activities. These include the certification of management systems, products, services, materials or personnel, even when these certifications attest conformity to an ISO standard, such as one of the ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 series. Examples of unacceptable use of the ISO logo would include use on products, in publications, on Internet sites, in marketing materials, advertisements and company letterheads.
Engineers should know better.
I think this (the quote above) makes it pretty clear that using the logo is a trademark violation.
All the journals I’ve observed that use the ISO logo gratuitously or that falsely claim ISO certification are from India.
