Collective trademarks and service marks are used by members of a group or collective, with each member applying the mark to the member's own goods or using it in connection with the member's own services. Ownership of Collective Marks properly lies in the parent body or other organization because of its exercise of legitimate control over use of the mark by the members of the group. [15] An example of a collective mark in the United States is the American Automobile Association, AAA.

Collective marks are in the process of being added to the trademark law in India and the author encourages registration of such marks for non-profit and other associations, for example, especially where previously such groups were limited to attempting to secure the more difficult and limited Certification Mark. [16]

GIs and Certification Marks, it must be stressed, serve distinctly different functions from collective and more “traditional” trademarks although there are some apparent surface similarities. GIs and Certification marks and traditional trademarks can serve as source-identifiers — but GIs and Certification Marks serve to identify goods as originating in a particular territory or locality, process, etc., rather than to distinguish the specific goods and/or services of the trademark owner. GIs and Certification Marks, as with traditional trademarks, serve to indicate the quality of goods, but only GIs and Certification Marks relate only to the particular quality or reputation of the goods attributable to a specific geographic area, or created by a particular method of manufacture, etc. “Pure” trademarks, on the other hand, underscore the quality of the specific goods or services of the owner(s). Therefore, GIs and Certification marks are less valuable to the individual business owner because of the lack of specific association between the mark and the particular goods/services of the owner(s). Moreover, given the additional limitations placed on securing and maintaining Certification Marks, such marks are of the least value and importance of all to the average business owner.