Collaboration with distributors, retailers, and pharmacies

For a successful dealer and Bayer relationship, it is important to have clear guidance on how to handle the brands. It is not only a question of correct brand management. More important is to keep the trademark protection untouched and vivid.

Bayer successfully markets many of its products through Bayer-approved distributors. A separate trademark license is not required for selling and marketing original Bayer products through these Bayer-approved distributors. However, if the products are repackaged or relabelled before sale, and our trademarks are used on the packaging/label, a separate trademark license is required. Please consult Corporate Trademarks.

To avoid any misunderstandings, distributors are not permitted to use our trademarks except on material produced by Bayer. This is also true of the design or installation of Bayer trademarks at a point of sale – inside and outside of buildings. It is important that our brands are used correctly at the points of sale. Our Corporate Design forms the basis for such applications and must be applied correctly, as described in Identity Net.

The use of our trademarks by a distributor on its own material is “reference advertising” and must be legally reviewed and explicitly authorized by Corporate Trademarks and Corporate Brand Management.

Any co-promotion with distributors or other partners where both the distributor’s and our trademarks are to be used will only be permitted if a detailed trademark license agreement is signed. As handling such a collaboration or co-promotion is a complex business, please ensure start-to-end planning, management, and implementation through the entire process. Trademark and brand protection are one important element of this process. In that context, it is not only a question of the correct usage of our logos but also of how the collaboration in question supports our brand values and reputation.

Cooperation activities may take the form of:

Co-advertising: Two or more brands cooperate for joint advertising or a joint promotion during which both will be recognized as two separate brands.

Co-events: Two or more partners co-organize and co-finance an event for the same or joint target audience.

Co-marketing: Two or more partners bundle their marketing activities for a product or a service to reduce marketing costs.

Neither the Bayer Cross nor our product trademarks may be used on the business cards of distributors, dealers, or other external partners. We would ask you to always consult Corporate Trademarks and Corporate Brand Management if you receive a request concerning business cards from an external partner.

Cooperation at the point of sale (POS):

Cooperation on online marketplaces (OMP):

The Bayer Cross and the company name Bayer must also be used correctly on online marketplaces (e.g. TMALL in China or Orbia in Brazil). If there are flagship stores for Bayer products on such online marketplaces, care must be taken to ensure that the product trademarks and the Bayer Cross are used properly and in line with the guidelines detailed on Bayer Identity Net. Corporate Trademarks grants authorization in writing for such uses. Views of flagship stores (Tmall/Tmall.hk (“Tmall Global”) and to Orbia in Brazil) are given below:

Using the Bayer Cross logo on third-party social media pages

Distributors and other partners may naturally want to post about their joint activities with Bayer on their own social media pages. Although we welcome this, we typically would not permit the use of the Bayer Cross in these posts or profiles. (If an external company just wants to use the company name Bayer as a reference in their social media channels, this may be possible, but it’s still necessary to obtain a consent declaration beforehand).

The reason for this is twofold: to protect our intellectual property rights, and to preserve our brand and its power by ensuring it is only used in contexts where we can manage it.

There may be exceptional cases where the use of the Bayer Cross on social media is permissible. Each potential case will be assessed on its own merits, but as a rule, we would expect the logo to be integrated into a clearly recognizable campaign, following consistent design standards as well as our brand guidelines. Therefore, you would usually see permission granted in the context of co-branded projects that are managed end-to-end, rather than one-off posts. Examples might include established commercial collaborations (two brands displayed together), or multi-stakeholder events Bayer is attending along with other companies (many brands displayed equally).

If you are working with a third party who wants to use the Bayer Cross on their page, we should first have a direct discussion about how, where and why the logo will be used. This can take place consultatively between all parties, including you, the partner, Corporate Trademarks and Corporate Brand Management. You should use our questionnaire to collect essential information ahead of the approval process. If the process is successful and third-party use of the Bayer Cross is justified, we will grant approval in writing.

For more details about the use of our brand in co-branding opportunities, check the full Co-branding section or download this brief guide to permitted use of the Bayer Cross.