Eligible products will bear an HDMI Associate emblem so that consumers can easily identify licensed products that are fully compliant with the HDMI specification and are sourced from a licensed HDMI Adopter.

“As more and more HDMI-enabled products make their way to the market, there are more choices available to the consumer,” says HDMI Licensing director of marketing and operations Charlene Wanat.

“But it is not always easy to know which products have been fully tested and are compliant with the HDMI specification. This program is designed to allow those companies that sell fully compliant products sourced from licensed Adopters to designate their products as such.”

Currently, all HDMI Adopters listed on the www.hdmi.org website are required to test their products for compliance. However, in cases where brand-name companies source their products from Adopters, the brand-name companies do not appear on the HDMI Adopter list. The HDMI Associate Program addresses this by offering an Associate Membership to those companies who are not Adopters, but who source their HDMI-enabled products from a licensed Adopter.

“The HDMI Associate Program makes it easier for consumers to identify compliant products, a major differentiator for resellers and one of the key reasons we joined the program,” says Sven Schulz of European cable brand, in-akustik.

“We are pleased to be one of the first members of this new program that recognises non-Adopter companies whose products are fully tested and compliant.”

An annual program membership fee of $3,000 entitles the Associate Member to use the HDMI Associate emblem in marketing and packaging. Associate Members will also be listed on the www.hdmi.org website and have the opportunity to participate in potential co-marketing opportunities with the HDMI Consortium, including the HDMI TechZone at CES 2012, industry trade shows, developer conferences, and worldwide road shows.