ONVIF, the leading global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, announced today that it is launching a proactive education and enforcement campaign designed to ensure that all claims of ONVIF conformance by manufacturers of IP-based physical security products are valid.

The education and enforcement initiative aims to further protect the ONVIF brand and more preemptively monitor ONVIF's copyrights, trademarks and logos on an ongoing basis. The campaign will also help further educate the manufacturing community about the specific requirements of compliance and their ability to advertise individual products as ONVIF conformant.

The only method of determining a product's conformance is through a listing on the ONVIF website, where conformant products can be easily searched using a variety of criteria. An entry on the ONVIF website signifies that the product has undergone ONVIF's comprehensive testing and conformance process, and has been individually certified by ONVIF as conformant. There are currently more than 3,300 individual conformant products listed.

"We recognize that the credibility of the ONVIF brand is crucial to the success of the standard and the organization going forward, therefore we take the protection of this brand very seriously," said Per Björkdahl, Chairman, ONVIF Steering Committee. "Our objective with this enforcement campaign is to reinforce to the market that the ONVIF name continues to represent interoperability to the market."

To augment these efforts, earlier this year ONVIF introduced a new level of membership to provide access to the ONVIF test tool, which is used to test the validity of product conformance. This Observer membership level allows consultants, systems integrators and media organizations to individually validate the conformance of a specific product to a particular ONVIF Profile.

"As a member driven organization we rely very heavily on the efforts of our members to help us develop policies and procedures that ensure the success of ONVIF, both for its members and for the industry at large," said Stuart Rawling, Vice Chairman, ONVIF Communication Committee. "We encourage anyone who suspects a product of falsely claiming conformance to contact us at help@onvif.org."