User Guide for Certificate Holders: How to initiate and sign the new Trademark License Agreement (TLA)

The new TLA electronic signature

The TLA is a legal document which determines the relationship between FSC and the organization holding an FSC certification. It grants you the right to use the FSC trademarks for both on-product labelling and promotional use - provided prior approval was given by your certification body.

The new FSC TLA determines new rules that improve FSC’s ability to uncover and block organizations selling non-certified products. Its legal requirements are set out in the so-called GDPR, the European legislation governing data protection.

You can sign the new TLA electronically, at any time, on a wide variety of devices. Eliminate the paper and get the agreement done faster!

For Single FSC Certificate Holders

The new TLA is currently only available for organizations applying for, or renewing, single certification. Certification will only be granted upon signature of the new TLA.

In order for a Single FSC Certificate Holder to sign the new TLA, the organization’s primary contact will be invited by their certification body to activate their FSC Connect account and sign in to the FSC Certification Portal.

For more information and any related questions, please contact your Certification Body or FSC via connect@fsc.org.

Important information about receiving communication from FSC

Certificate holders should look out for email messages from No-reply@connect-fsc.org, licensing@fsc.org, connect@fsc.org and from dse@eumail.docusign.net.

Certificate holders should consider working with their IT email provider or IT department to ensure that mails from these domains @springcm.net, @docusign.net and @docusign.com can be delivered without delay (e.g., adding the addresses to a "Safe Sender" list, ensuring that addresses are allowed based on the email provider/IT department inbound mail rules).

Click on the button below to see more information

How to register to FSC Connect

How to log in to the FSC Certification Portal

How to initiate the TLA for signature

How to sign the TLA via DocuSign®

How to download the signed TLA

How to switch between organizations

Invitation Email: The organization's primary contact will be invited by their certification body to activate their FSC Connect account.

FSC Connect is the gateway portal that provides access to various FSC tools, content and data. It delivers centered, digital solutions to help you engage with FSC.

(If you have been designated or invited as a primary contact to activate your FSC Connect account and have not received the invitation email, please check your spam/ junk/ promotional folders for the invitation.)

02 FSC Connect Account Activation: Once the the organization's primary contact has received the invitation email they are required to click on the activation link provided in the message to activate their account.

Once the FSC Connect account is activated, please proceed to login to FSC Connect. You'll see the private page as Certificate Holder.

FSC Certification Portal Login: After logging in to FSC Connect, choose the "FSC Certification Portal" from the toolbar.

Read the "Terms & Conditions" and accept it by ticking the box. Click "Continue".

06 After accepting Terms & Conditions, you'll be directed to "Consent" page. Provide consent by marking "Yes" for the following 4 statements and press "I agree" button at the bottom of the page. (If your answer is "No", please see the next step.)

If your answer is "No" for any of the statements on the consent page, please identify a generic email address or email address of the contact person for your company and press "I agree" button at the bottom to continue.

You've reached to Certification Portal as Certificate Holder. Click on "Start TLA" to initiate the new TLA in 3 steps.

Please confirm the "License Code" and "Certificate Type" fields. Click "Start" to continue.

Step 1 of the Wizard: Please choose your company's preferred language for agreement and click "Next".

Step 2 of the Wizard: Please confirm the legal name of the company. Fill in the company information and click "Next".

Step 3 of the Wizard: Please choose Legal Representative (Select one of the three cases: "I am the legal representative", "Choose from company contacts", or "Create new account for legal representative"), then click "Preview".

Please review the information. If the information is correct, click "Finish" to initiate the TLA. If not, click previous to change the information.

You've initiated the TLA. Now, your designated legal representative should receive an email. Please go to the email and click on the link to sign the TLA via DocuSign.

Please read the "Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure" and tick the box to access the document. Click "Continue".

Please carefully read the document and after reading, click "Start" on the upper left corner of the document. It will take you to the "Sign" field.

Click "Sign" to create your signature.

(By the system, your name is shown in hand-write as a signature suggestion. As alternative, you can draw or upload your signature.) After signing all required fields, click "Finish" on upper right corner of the document.

You're done signing. Please click "Continue" to receive a copy of this document per email. (You can also download or print using the icons above. Please see the screenshot for details.)

You're done signing. Please click "Continue" to receive a copy of this document per email. (You can also download or print using the icons in the right upper corner of the pop-up, see the screenshot for details.)

You can also access your signed TLA through your FSC Certification Portal account. Please log in to your FSC Certification account and click on "My License".

Click on the "download" icon.

If you are the primary contact for more than one organization and you are registered with the same email address, please switch organization in order to access your account for your other organization.