The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accepts the terminology "laboratory-created," "laboratory grown," "man-made," "(manufacturer-name)-created," and "synthetic," to described diamonds made in a laboratory. Using only the term "diamond" or "created diamond" to describe man-made diamonds is not acceptable. Some members of the trade are using the term "cultured," however, at this time, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) does not consider this term sufficient without further disclosure. We at ZSDA agree with this. However, there is some controversy over the use of the term "synthetic." In the U.S., the term is sometimes considered confusing to consumers who generally understand it to be synonymous with faux or imitation.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agrees with this misunderstanding of synthetic and made the following statement, "The Commission is persuaded that the term ‘synthetic’ as applied to gemstones, is misunderstood by some consumers to mean something fake or artificial." (1999, Westlaw; comments regarding flux-grown gems). However, among gemologists the term synthetic is understood to mean made-by-man or laboratory-created, and some organization, such as CIBJO actually require their members to use this term.

The Gemological Laboratories in the USA accept the FTC rules and provide certificates for the Ziemer Swiss Made Diamonds with the same nomenclature used for natural diamond certificates. The Gemological Laboratories purpose is 2 fold; (1) to provide a basis for the value of a diamond through a standardized grading system and (2) to protect the consumer from fraudulent sales activities. By laser inscribing and issuing grading reports on laboratory-created diamonds, the gemological laboratory is helping to ensure that their origin is disclosed to the end consumer.

Ziemer Swiss Diamond Art advocates the use of the terms Ziemer Swiss Made, Man Made, Laboratory Grown, and Laboratory Created in order to clearly and easily communicate to consumers (1) the nature of the product (scientifically, it is a diamond) and (2) the origin being man-made in Switzerland.

A Ziemer Swiss made Diamond has the identical chemical, physical, optical and thermal properties as a natural, earth mined diamond. For this reason, whether a "Ziemer Swiss made Diamond" or a "Natural Diamond" …a diamond is a diamond.