The Kitemark is a UK product and service quality trade mark which is owned and operated by the British Standards Institution (BSI Group). According to BSI, Kitemark certification confirms that a product or service's claim has been independently and repeatedly tested by experts, meaning that purchasers can have trust and confidence in products and services that are BSI Kitemark certified. The Kitemark is most frequently used to identify products where safety is paramount, such as crash helmets, smoke alarms and flood defences. In recent years, the Kitemark has also been applied to a range of services, such as electrical installations; inclusive service provision; car servicing and accident repair; and window installations. Common household or consumer products that are often Kitemark certified include EV chargers; domestic furniture (such as sofas and mattresses); IoT/ smart connected products such as doorbells and security cameras. A full list can be seen on BSI's Kitemark product testing webpage. History The Kitemark was originally conceived in 1903 as a symbol to identify products manufactured to meet British Standards' specifications. "Kitemark" came from the kite shape of the graphic device which was drawn up – an uppercase B (for British) on its back, over an S (for standard), enclosed by a V (for verification). The Kitemark was subsequently registered as a trademark on 12 June 1903 and as such is among the oldest product quality marks in the world still in regular use. The Kitemark was initially used as a trade mark on tramway rails in 1903 and was instrumental in reducing the number of specifications for rails from 75 to 5. The first full Kitemark scheme – equivalent to today’s Kitemark – came into being in 1926, when the General Electric Company was awarded a Kitemark for light fittings. For the next few decades, the use of Kitemark was largely limited to technical and engineering applications up until the 1950s when the boom in consumer products led to increased concern about product safety. By the 1960s the Kitemark was being used to identify safe products in areas such as nightwear, domestic furniture, pressure cookers and motorcycle helmets. With the introduction of quality management systems standards in the 1970s Kitemark schemes were developed in areas such as double glazing and fire safety. As of March 2021, there are more than 450 individual Kitemark schemes covering products as diverse as printed circuit boards and cattle tags, and services