Prime Design Mark

About Prime Design Mark
Prime Design Mark is a symbol on products & product packages that communicates the intrinsic design value embedded within designs. The Prime Design Mark is a verifiable symbol, making it hard to be used without permission; during verification process the image of the verified product is shown; this system was designed to ensure that third parties cannot use the Prime Design Mark on product packaging or products without getting marked as invalid.

Prime Design Mark is not an endorsement or a certificate of quality or it is not a warranty of any sorts. It indicates original design content within a product, the purpose of the mark is to create an umbrella brand to help public recognize good design that are hidden within the products, especially to communicate the hidden values such as ease of use, in-depth thinking and total product design philosophies that are embedded to product.
Prime Design Mark is awarded to products or services that meet a certain level of original design value as well as quality, Prime Design Mark awarded designs should positively differentiate itself from commoditized offerings of other manufacturers. The quality criteria is defined based on the use, form and function of the licensed product.

Prime Design Marks are licensed free of charge to products that win the Platinum A' Design Award and are licensed at a discount to products that win Gold, Silver and Bronze A' Design Awards, however obtaining the mark is not automatic; there is a process to follow and the A’ Design Award victory does not grant an automated license to use the mark but it provides an opportunity to apply and use the mark free of charge, if and only if, the application is approved.

You can verify if a Prime Design Mark is valid or not by visiting PrimeDesignMark.com for valid marks, the website will not only indicate that the mark is valid but also display the image of the product so that you know for which product the mark is valid for.

Application for Prime Design Mark is made through A' Design Award website and the Prime Design Mark is given only to A' Design Award winner designs that are also screened for a physical inspection to check overall material & finishing quality, ergonomic factors, safety and security features, and other factors such as ease of use, packaging quality, documentation or ease of maintenance.

The physical checking requirement was especially established to ensure that the products carrying the mark contribute positively towards the global Prime Design Mark brand by being reliable, usable, durable, sustainable, functional, efficient, powerful, aesthetic, in summary superior to other products so that the Prime Design Mark brand value grows positively with each application.

Parties who apply to use the Prime Design Mark must also sign a licensing agreement which consists of several parts. The first part is a standard terms and agreement, followed by declaration of conformity which is an affidavit, a verified statement that shows that the manufacturer states that the product conforms with relevant quality and safety standards, a verification and written and dully signed statement that it is under oath or penalty of perjury which could serve as evidence to the Prime Design Mark’s veracity and which could be used for court proceedings.

The Prime Design Mark agreement also includes limitation of liability as well as a non-disparagement, indemnification, and several further clauses that govern the Prime Design Mark usage via the license agreement. The Prime Design Mark agreement is available to download by eligible A’ Design Award laureates who wishes to apply to be able to use the mark for their products in market. If you wish to apply to get a Prime Design Mark, please download the Prime Design Mark agreement and application form (available for logged-in award winners only).

Once you download the Prime Design Mark, fill it two copies, and send it to our address: A’ Design Award SRL, Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100, Como / Italy, together with the product samples which would be inspected physically. It shall kindly be noted that the samples will not be returned regardless of whether a mark is granted or not, and the granting of the mark is at the sole discretion of the award manager or coordinator. If your application is approved, the mark is granted for a 10 year period.

The eligibility for Prime Design Mark is as follows: 1) Product must be currently in the market. 2) Product must be mass produced (not valid for unique, one-time, conceptual, limited edition or limited production products), 3) Product must be a winner of the A’ Design Award, 4) Product must be able to pass a physical inspection for overall quality, executed by A’ Design Award officials. 5) Prime Design Mark licensing agreement shall be signed.

Prime Mark Verification Status
When the verification code is provided, the Prime Mark will display one of the three status. The Not Valid status is shown when the ID number is not valid. Expired status is shown if the certificate is older than 10 years (you can renew and extend your mark every 10 years), and Valid status is shown if the Prime Design Mark is current and valid.

Not Valid	Expired	Valid
Prime Mark is Not Valid	Prime Mark is Expired	Prime Mark is Valid

Associated Costs

Prime Design Mark Application Fees
Prime Design Mark Application Fees are as follows: 347 Euro including eventual tax, which is further discounted based on A' Design Award achievement for the product the Prime Design Mark is being applied for. This fee covers the initiation of application procedure, and the application is free of charge for Platinum winners. You may refer to Table 1. for details and specific amounts for different achievement levels.

Prime Design Mark Release Fees
Prime Design Mark Release Fees are as follows: 2.168 Euro including eventual tax, which is further discounted based on A' Design Award achievement for the product the Prime Design Mark is being applied for you may refer to Table 2. for details on specific amounts. This fee covers the release of the Prime Design Mark after review.

Prime Design Mark Artwork Review Fees
Prior to Licensee referencing our using the Prime Design Mark in any advertising or promotional materials, Licensee shall submit a copy of a representative item showing each proposed use for review and written approval by the Licensor’s Award Manager, there will be a 157 Euro fee including each artwork review session (and not for each artwork approval and media request but rather a session - you can submit up to 20 artworks under a single session, as a PDF document for example). Within this context, the first review is free for all Licensees and second and further reviews sessions shall be paid in advance to compensate managerial time required for evaluating the requests. The Award Manager may grant artwork approvals in his or her sole discretion, based on the wording and the way the content is presented, if the artwork or content is not in English, legally correct English translation must accompany the original artworks, for review, regarding the wording of the Prime Design Mark.

Contact Us
If you have any questions about the Prime Design Mark, please contact us using our form.