Trademark Policy

Usage Guidelines for DANB Trademarks

DANB Trademarks

The DANB logo and the DANB CDA pin design are registered trademarks of the Dental Assisting National Board, Inc. (DANB). CDA®, COA®, CDPMA®, COMSA®, DANB®, and Dental Assisting National Board® are registered certification marks of DANB. RHS®, ICE®, and Measuring Dental Assisting Excellence® are registered service marks of DANB. CERTIFIED DENTAL ASSISTANT™, CPFDA™ and CRFDA™ are certification marks of DANB. Mark of Dental Assisting Excellence™ and the DANB-Approved logo are service marks of DANB.

Who May Use DANB Trademarks with Permission

DANB Certification Marks

DANB certification marks can be used by individuals who are certified by DANB to indicate to the public that they are certified. These individuals are known as certificants.

Certificants may use the DANB certification marks corresponding to each specific certification they hold (CDA, CPFDA, COA, CDPMA, and COMSA) after their names on a résumé, business card, website, in a book or publication, and in other print and electronic media. A certificant may also display the mark corresponding to his or her certification on a nametag or uniform.

Examples:

Carla Schneider, CDA

Carol Oeder, CDA, COA, CPFDA, CDPMA

A certificant may also use the marks DANB and DENTAL ASSISTING NATIONAL BOARD to indicate to the public that he or she is certified by DANB.

Examples:

An individual certified by DANB may write the following on his or her résumé or in a professional biography:

DANB certified for 13 years.

Dental Assisting National Board certification earned in 1993.

To remain DANB certified, an individual must maintain certification by renewing annually and completing DANB’s recertification requirements. If you earned DANB certification in the past but have not maintained certification annually, you may not use DANB’s certification marks. If you are not certified by DANB, you are not entitled to use any of DANB’s certification marks. This is true even if you are authorized to use the identical mark in another country.

An individual who is not currently certified but has been granted Emeritus status by DANB must not use the DANB certification mark corresponding to the former certification held after his or her name. However, a former certificant who has been granted Emeritus status may use the certification mark corresponding to the former credential followed by a hyphen and the word “Emeritus.”

Examples:

A former DANB certificant who has been granted Emeritus status by DANB may use the certification mark corresponding to the former certification only if it is connected with a hyphen to the word “Emeritus,” as follows:

Diana Smith, CDA-Emeritus

Rebecca Jones, CDA-Emeritus, COA-Emeritus

Other DANB Trademarks

DANB logo and DANB pin design

Unless express written permission has been granted by DANB, no individual or entity is authorized to use or reproduce the DANB logo or the DANB pin design.

DANB-Approved logo

Effective June 21, 2011, DANB discontinued its Continuing Dental Education (CDE) Approval Program and no longer accepts applications for approval of new CDE courses. DANB’s Board of Directors voted to discontinue the DANB CDE Approval process to eliminate confusion about the meaning of “DANB CDE Approval” among DANB’s stakeholders, many of whom mistakenly believed that DANB’s approval process involved evaluation of a course’s quality or that only DANB-approved CDE courses would meet DANB’s recertification requirements. DANB’s Board was also concerned that the rules for advertising a course as “DANB Approved” were often misunderstood by sponsors, leading to improper use of DANB’s trademarks by some sponsors.

Formerly, each sponsor of continuing dental education (CDE) courses that were approved by DANB for CDE credit was granted a limited, revocable, nonexclusive license to use the “DANB Approved” logo in connection with approved continuing education courses. As of July 1, 2011, pursuant to the discontinuation of DANB’s CDE Approval Program, all licenses to use the DANB-Approved logo have been terminated. No individual or entity is currently authorized to use, display, or reproduce the DANB-Approved logo.

Sponsors of those CDE courses that were approved by DANB for CDE credit before June 21, 2011 will be provided with alternate language to use to designate DANB CDE Approval through the end of the three-year period awarded by DANB for approval of a specific course or courses for CDE credit.

Other Permissible Uses of DANB Trademarks

Individuals and entities not affiliated with DANB may make nominative use of DANB’s trademarks. That is, they may use the marks to refer to DANB’s actual products, services, or certifications, as long as their use conforms to the following guidelines:

  1. If you are making nominative use of DANB’s protected marks, you must include the following DANB ownership statement on the same printed or electronic page where the mark appears:

    [Mark] is a (registered) trademark of the Dental Assisting National Board, Inc. (DANB).This [publication, website, product, course] is not reviewed or endorsed by DANB.
  2. When making nominative use of DANB marks, you must use the DANB mark as an adjective followed by a generic noun, such as “the CDA exam,” “DANB certification,” or “the RHS certificate of competency.”

    It is also acceptable to use the possessive “DANB’s” before a nominative use that contains a construction that includes a DANB-owned trademark followed by a generic noun, such as “DANB’s RHS exam” or “DANB’s COA certification.”

    Do not use DANB’s marks as a noun or display them in a plural or possessive form; notwithstanding the foregoing, you may use the possessive DANB’s before another DANB mark.

    Examples
    Acceptable: “Prepare for DANB’s CDA exam”
    Unacceptable: “DANB CDA Exam Review”
  3. You may not display any DANB mark so that it is larger or more prominent than your own name or logo. You may not call attention to a DANB mark by making use of fonts/typefaces, colors, or font sizes that differ from those used in the surrounding text.
  4. You may not incorporate a DANB mark into your corporate or business name or into a product name.
  5. You may not use DANB’s protected marks as part of an Internet domain name, or in meta tags or hidden text on any Internet page.
  6. You may not use a DANB mark in any way that implies that the product or item being described is a DANB product or that it is endorsed by DANB. Example: “DANB CDA Exam Review” is unacceptable, because this use suggests sponsorship by or affiliation with DANB.
  7. You must use DANB marks in a way that provides accurate information about DANB, DANB exams, eligibility pathways for DANB certification, and about the relationship between you and DANB.
  8. If using a DANB mark in the title of course that is intended to prepare the course participant to take a DANB exam, you may not use a DANB mark as the first word in the course title, and may not otherwise give the impression that the course is a DANB product. No DANB mark may be used in a course title unless the title constitutes a nominative use, such as “Preparation course for DANB’s CDA exam,” and a disclaimer of affiliation, endorsement or sponsorship by DANB is present on the same page where the title that includes nominative use of a DANB mark is displayed.

    When used in a course title, you may only use a DANB mark as part of a prepositional phrase, with DANB’s mark used as an adjective and a generic noun used as the object of the preposition.

    Examples
    Acceptable: Preparation course for DANB’s CDA exam
    Unacceptable: DANB CDA Review Course

    Example Disclaimer Language:
    DANB and CDA are registered trademarks of the Dental Assisting National Board, Inc. (DANB).This course is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsed by DANB.

    If one or more courses making nominative use of DANB marks in their titles are listed in a catalog of courses, the publisher is not required to include a disclaimer of affiliation, endorsement or sponsorship on
    each page
    where a DANB mark appears; however, the author and publisher must indicate each DANB mark with an asterisk or other footnote symbol, and if the author or publisher chooses to include this disclaimer on only one page, the disclaimer must be included as a footnote or endnote on the first or last page that contains a course whose title makes nominative use of a DANB mark.
  9. If you are a sponsor of continuing dental education courses and DANB granted CDE approval of one or more of your CDE courses prior to discontinuation DANB’s CDE Approval Program on June 21, 2011, you must follow the additional instructions set forth in DANB’s Revised Guidelines for DANB-Approved Continuing Dental Education related to permissible use of DANB marks and the new DANB disclaimer graphic and disclaimer text.