The Open Brand is signified by the "X" Device which can be associated with and used in relation to IT systems that have been registered with The Open Group as being fully conformant to one or more specific defined sets of functionality known as Product Standards. Its use is governed by the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA). Anyone wishing to register a product, or products, and use the "X" Device must first sign the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement and thereby "warrant and represent" that any products they register will fully conform to the identified Product Standard(s) and will continue to do so.

An Open Brand Certificate is issued for each Registered Product and an entry is made in the Directory of Registered Products which can be found on The Open Group web site at http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ . A single product may be registered as conformant to more than one Product Standard.

The Open Brand cannot, and does not, attempt to dictate the content of any transaction in any specific supplier/customer relationship. It does not attempt to force a purchaser to buy, or a supplier to supply, items that the customer does not require. What it can, and does, do is provide the mechanism through which, if a buyer wishes to procure a product that is guaranteed to conform to a Product Standard, the supplier will provide a fully conformant product in accordance with the terms of the Open Group Trademark License Agreement.

The rules are very simple. The Open Brand applies to a product or product range marketed by the supplier, and means that if a configuration matching a particular Product Standard is ordered from that product range it will be delivered in full, and all the conditions of the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement will apply to it.

Anyone buying a Registered Product is guaranteed that:

• The product conforms to the identified Product Standard.

  The product conforms to all the specifications and standards, and complies with any special conditions, identified in the Product Standard.

• The product will continue to conform.

  The product is guaranteed to remain conformant throughout fixes, functional enhancements, and performance improvements. If it does not continue to conform, and the non-conformance is not corrected in the predefined timescale, then the Product Registration, and the ability to use the trademark, will be lost.

• Any conformance problem will be fixed within the prescribed timescale.

  In the real world, conformance problems may arise from time to time. The Trademarks License Agreement requires that these must be corrected in the defined timescale.

Further detailed information on The Open Brand is included in the Guide to the Open Brand, a link to which is in the left hand navigation bar.