Important Updates to Gartner Copyright & Quote Policy

We’re always looking for ways to improve the Copyright and Quote Policy, and a recent review showed a few areas that warranted an update — all with an eye toward reinforcing Gartner’s core principles of independence and objectivity.

What’s changed?

• NEW – Magic Quadrant graphic parameters for homepage promotions (plus expanded guidance on quoting from MQ documents – Section 3.4a);
• Clarified rules around quoting material in limited audience documents (LADs — Section 2.1), securities offerings, and reports to shareholders (Section 2.5);
• New sections for:
  1. Gartner event booth signage (Section 2.6)
  2. Videos (Section 2.7)
  3. IT Key Metrics Data (Section 3.5)
  4. Toolkits (Section 3.6 )
  5. Gartner Trademarks/Logos (Section 2.9);
• Increased transparency regarding violations and an important update to the “assessment” guide (Section 6.4);
• Revamped Policy Essentials section to increase clarity (Section 1);
• Added supporting examples and explanations in several policy areas.

Here’s the detail behind the changes…

Magic Quadrant Guidance

• NEW! Clients may now display Magic Quadrant graphics on homepage banners, provided – of course – that licensing rights to the full report have been secured through Gartner Reprints
• Also new to Policy Section 3.4a are: detail around use of Magic Quadrant research, including common “pitfall” language” (for example, mistakenly calling positions “rankings” or “ratings”); examples of appropriate wording to describe placement and words to avoid; and sample documents with further details.

Clarification

• We often get questions about what we view as a Limited Audience Documents (LADs). To quickly determine whether your material needs to be submitted for review, we have provided more detail on the four types of documents that do not require pre-approval in Section 2.1.
• To make the process easier to follow, we have restructured the Securities Offerings and Reports to Shareholders usage parameters with detailed processes and outlined conditions in Section 2.4.

New Sections

• The Policy now provides guidance on IT Key Metrics Data in Section 3.5, which are for internal non-commercial use by licensed users only and not available for external quoting.
• To help you quickly identify whether a Toolkit is eligible for external usage (Section 3.6), we identified what to look for.
• We have added specific pre-production guidelines for including Gartner references in Gartner event booth signage and videos (see Sections 2.6 and 7, respectively).
• We have dedicated a section on the use of Gartner trademarks and logos under Section 2.9. We distinguished the differences between the Gartner Logo and the Gartner Cool Vendor Logo, included appropriate disclaimer text for each, and clarified proper usage for both.

Policy Violations

Gartner takes violations of our Policy very seriously. While we have long had sanctions against those who externally share draft Magic Quadrant content, we have identified a second scenario that warrants an immediate, three-month quote and reprint blackout. Effective January 1, 2016: We will impose these bans whenever we discover that Gartner published research or references have been included in an earnings call without being pre-approved by Gartner Quote Requests (see Section 6.4).

Policy Essentials

We have reorganized, clarified and numbered the parameters outlined in the Policy Essentials (see Section 1). The content is not new, but it’s now easier to understand and identify.

Supporting documentation

Last year we introduced several clarifying samples of Do’s and Don’ts to key policy parameters that had appeared to be confusing to clients. These documents provided additional explanations, along with visual or textual examples of what would or would not be allowed. We received very positive feedback on these so we added new documents throughout to provide greater context and examples. Click on any “Why?” “Examples” or “here” links for this information.

Where to go with questions: If you have questions about the Policy, contact ombudsman@gartner.com. Please continue to send all quote requests (including reports of potential Policy violations) to quote.requests@gartner.com.

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