October 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

October 2020 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 14 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | October 2020 15 A Sotheby’s representative holds a Type IIa, 102.39-carat D-color flawless oval mined diamond during a media preview at Sotheby’s on Sept. 9, 2020 in New York City. (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images. Used by permission to Luxe Licensing for LGM. After diamonds shake hands with dia- monds, we need to hug the retailer and the consumer. No cloudy communications, rather in-demand transparency. This leads directly into diamond grading, reporting and value— perceived or actual—all featured in PartThree of this series. You’ll read responses from GIA, AGS, IGI, SGL and GCAL, all given the same questions and you’ll read the answers. You’re Invited Getting back to the above-mentioned defi- nitions, you are invited to submit yours to me at: dans@luxelicensing.com For privacy reasons, I can’t share any portion of your re- sponse or use your name or company unless I have your direct consent.But I will share what words are trending and provide the correct, legal definitions for both types of diamonds. I cannot say what’s right or wrong, although a legal power player can, someone such as Tiffany Stevens, CEO and general counsel for the Jewelers Vigilance Committee ( JVC). In March of this year, Stevens didn’t touch diamond definitions, but she did speak di- rectly to the permitted promotional wording for LGDs as per the updated FTC Jewelry Guidelines. Full Disclosure As for the terminology of LGD advertising (and other forms of LGD public pronounce- ment), Stevens stated, “[For] lab-grown, you’ll want to use laboratory-grown, laboratory- created , or your manufacturer name–created. With the new guidelines, as of July 2018, there’s a new grab-bag kind of category that contains words that might be okay.But as your nerdy lawyer friends, we want to lower your risk and discourage you from going there.” Remember, this isn’t the legal definition of an LGD, it’s the permitted promotional wording that follows the law. And the FTC is looking for those who don’t comply, which may be a company in your supply chain. If you’re doing business with an LGD com- pany that has a website, it may be hyping in- correct wording or issuing incorrect or illegal statements, so buyer beware.The need to heed JVC’s helping hand is right now. “The FTC did clarify that when people experimented with words like above ground , those would not be okay.They wanted to create room for free speech, but we discourage people from going there. And for SEO [search engine optimi- zation] purposes, if you want people to find you, you probably want to use one of the three approved terms,”Stevens added. If you dislike reading legal documents, JVC has a dynamic educational video where Stevens speaks to this issue: facebook.com/TheDiamondFacts If you like what you’re reading, please subscribe and like the page; it’s where this diamond conversation will continue virtually. Carbon Copy There are some among us who rightfully hold the title of genius.They are the individu- als driven by massive doses of passion mixed with just the right kind of intellect. This is the kind of brain power that launches rock- ets, creates humanoid robots and codes artifi- cial intelligence (AI) that will beat anyone at chess, even that AI’s programmer. From the 1940s to present day,America has been on a beeline to brilliance. We proudly stand tall amidst a bevy of major innova- tions from the automobile to air flight.We’ve invented satellites and cable broadcasting, superseded by the internet and made them pocket-sized. Humans were born to create. But we do not create diamonds in a lab, we copy them . We’re so good at reproducing diamonds, we make themperfectly.Actually,it’s the only way LGDs can be made. One might say that we copy diamonds better than the original. This is because any LGD is 100% carbon, which in the diamond world equals 100% perfec- tion. It’s one of the rare times the word “rare” should be used by the natural diamond group. Any mined diamond certified as Type IIa is rarely found and is valuable. In the LGD sec- tor, it is exclusively Type IIa that is grown. ►