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FIPT FAQ

This reference list provides members and vendors quick answers to some of the more frequently asked questions regarding the NA Fellowship’s property—NA’s literature, logos, trademarks, and symbols. For a legal and more detailed explanation of each question please refer to The Fellowship Intellectual Property Trust and the NA Intellectual Property Bulletins # 1-5; for more on the use of NA’s copyrighted literature, please refer to NAWS Bulletins #34 and #35. All are available at na.org/fipt 

The FIPT is the legal document that outlines (in detail) the relationship between Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (NAWS) and the Fellowship as a whole. NAWS has been assigned the responsibility to protect the copyrights to the Fellowship’s recovery literature and all registered trademarks on behalf of the Fellowship. NAWS is accountable to the Fellowship through elected delegates and ultimately the groups of Narcotics Anonymous.

It is essential to protect our logos and trademarks so that all of NA’s property remains the property of the Fellowship. One of the responsibilities of NAWS, as defined in the FIPT and mandated by the World Service Conference, is to protect the Fellowship’s property on behalf of the Fellowship.

Only registered service bodies, NA groups, and vendors licensed by NAWS have legal rights to use NA logos and trademarks because they are accountable to the owners of those symbols—the NA Fellowship. This includes material posted on the Internet, flyers, merchandise, banners, etc. See Intellectual Property Bulletin #1.

The NA Fellowship has determined that NAWS is the sole publisher of NA recovery literature and for that reason no other person, group, or committee is allowed to reproduce or post NA Fellowship-approved literature anywhere. NAWS posts information pamphlets and booklets on its official website, na.org, so that registered service bodies can provide links from their own websites and do not need to post the actual literature on their own site. NAWS also provides some registered NA service committees the ability to reproduce the daily Just for Today and Spiritual Principle a Day, but only after receiving a signed agreement between NAWS and the committee.

No. If you are an NA member you do not own the symbols or NA’s literature. The Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous owns the symbols and the literature, and you are a member of that Fellowship. In essence, you are a stakeholder in NA—you do not own NA. You have the ability to participate with the entire Fellowship in making decisions about the use of NA’s property. Individual members are not accountable to the Fellowship, but are allowed to create one or two items using an NA symbol for personal use. See Intellectual Property Bulletin #2. See below for information on vendors’ licenses.

No. It is generally against the law to use any of the NA logos/trademarks with other organization/company trademarks, artworks, slogans, etc. (e.g., Harley Davidson®, Looney Toons™, Nike©, etc.). It is also important to note that our Sixth Tradition cautions against affiliating NA with any other organization. Placing the NA symbol with artwork from other organizations is not only a violation of copyright law, it also conflicts with the guidance of our Traditions.

There is a “use-it-or-lose-it” policy when it comes to trademarks. If NAWS does not use the trademark on a particular type of item (e.g., jewelry, apparel, etc.), then the Fellowship will lose ownership of the trademark on that type of product. Since NAWS does not produce all the various items that our members want, they license vendors to produce those items instead. The licensing program allows for the Fellowship to maintain ownership of the trademarks and ensure that these trademarks are used appropriately. Licensing a vendor to use NA logos and trademarks is not a violation of the Sixth Tradition.

No. As stated in NA Intellectual Property Bulletin #3, a vendor license from NAWS does not grant access to NA events or functions. A vendor license simply grants a vendor the right to use NA trademarks on its pre-approved items, not the right to sell those items at an NA event. Only the NA service body responsible for the event can give permission to a licensed vendor. Just because you have a vendor license does not mean the service body has to let you sell anything at their event/function/convention/learning day/marathon/dance/etc.

Many vendors get a license from NA World Services believing that it gives them the right to sell their merchandise at the world convention. NAWS typically does not invite licensed vendors to sell at the world convention. Many licensed vendors are disappointed to find that the license is not an all-access pass to NA events.

All groups and registered NA service bodies have the right to use the NA logos without permission from NAWS within the boundaries laid out in the FIPT Bulletin #1. This is because they are directly accountable to the owners of that property—the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. Groups have a slightly different relationship with the Fellowship that is outlined in detail in FIPT Bulletin #1.

A vendor does not need to be licensed by NAWS as long as the service body responsible for hiring the vendor retains the rights and ownership of any and all artwork created by the vendor.

There have been cases where vendors design merchandise for a service committee and because the committee did not make sure that the vendor turned over the ownership of the artwork, the vendor was able to reproduce the t-shirts and sell them separately from their agreement with the committee.

No. NAWS does not license audio recording vendors because NA is not giving up ownership of any artwork when hiring recording vendors. Generally, audio recording vendors do not own the artwork used on any labeling; the committee that created it owns that artwork and the audio of the speaker as long as the committee states their ownership of the artwork in all agreements with vendors.

The extent of the financial relationship between any licensed vendor and NAWS is that of collecting the fees associated with obtaining a license. The licensing fees are designed to offset some of the expenses incurred by NAWS on an annual basis for administering those registered trademarks. NAWS receives no commission, kickback, incentive, or percentage of revenue by virtue of the issuance of a license to a vendor.

NAWS has been delegated the final word on how NA trademarks are used by vendors. We do not own artwork created by a vendor. Any artwork developed by a vendor that includes our trademarks cannot be trademarked by the vendor.

Yes, individuals can use short portions of NA recovery literature as a part of the artwork created for use on merchandise. Those portions cannot exceed 25% of any one “piece” of NA literature. A “piece” is defined as a chapter or daily reading. Licensing is required if a vendor uses any of our trademark logos.

No, NAWS does not approve the use of images of the Basic Text or any other recovery literature as a part of vendor artwork. Service committees do have the ability to use those images.

No, NAWS does not approve the use of any of our trademarked symbols on recovery medallions. Vendors may purchase medallions from NAWS, and apply a treatment to them for resale.