Build trust and email security with DigiCert Verified Mark Certificates

Mark Certificates are a new, innovative type of digital certificate that allows companies to place a certified brand logo next to the “Sender” field in customer inboxes—even before the message is opened. It's a way to show customers that the email is really from your brand. This makes it so that customers can recognize and trust your messages right away. In supported email clients, Verified Mark Certificate can also activate a blue checkmark to indicate verified sender status.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is an email authentication policy that builds on SPF and DKIM protocols. It adds linkage to the author, published policies for recipient handling of authentication failures, and reporting from receivers to senders, in order to improve visibility and offer additional protection of the domain from fraudulent phishing and spoofing attacks.

A DMARC record, published in a domain's DNS, allows domain owners to instruct receivers to either take no action, quarantine, or reject emails that fail SPF and DKIM authentication.

DMARC gives security professionals more transparency and better control to accurately identify and then block or quarantine fraudulent emails more quickly. It’s a smart, commonsense standard that helps to protect both consumers and brands.

BIMI stands for "Brand Indicators for Message Identification" and is an email specification that enables brand logos to be displayed within supporting email clients, encouraging the widespread deployment of DMARC protection.

Mark Certificates operate in alignment with the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) email specification, which, in combination with Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC), provides end-to-end authentication of emails. DigiCert Mark Certificates serve as the foundation for BIMI implementation, providing the necessary trust to confirm that the logo and email domain are owned by the same organization and that the domain is authentic.

Mark Certificate + DMARC enforcement + BIMI = Logo-verified Email

The email client validates your organization’s DMARC enforcement via confirmation of your BIMI record and VMC-ensconced logo. If everything checks out, your logo will be displayed, serving as a visual indicator of your message’s authenticity and increasing engagement and brand recognition.

No, Mark certificates do not digitally sign emails or encrypt message content.

To increase the security, confidentiality, and integrity of your email communications by digitally signing and encrypting your messages, buy a S/MIME Email Certificate.

The S/MIME Certificate is the perfect addition to the Mark certificate. Together, they increase the security, reliability, and privacy of your emails.

You need to have your logo trademarked with an “Active” status in either of these listed Offices:

• United States (US): United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
• Canada (CA): Canadian Intellectual Property Office
• European Union (EM): European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
• United Kingdom (GB): UK Intellectual Property Office
• Germany (DE): Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt
• Japan (JP): Japan Trademark Office
• Australia (AU): IP Australia
• Spain (ES): Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas
• South Korea (KR): Korean Intellectual Property Office
• Brazil (BR): Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI)
• India (IN): Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & TradeMarks
• Switzerland (CH): Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property
• Denmark (DK): Danish Patent and Trademark Office Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs
• France (FR): French Patent and Trademark Office
• New Zealand (NZ): Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
• Sweden (SE): Swedish Intellectual Property Office (PRV)

The validation process for Mark Certificates follows the same Extended Validation Certificate requirements used for SSL Certificates, with a few added steps for additional security:

• Organization validation: Legal and operational existence, physical address and phone number verification.
• Confirm your trademark is legally registered or is a government seal.
• Video Call with a member of DigiCert's validation team to validate the person's identity requesting the Mark Certificate.
• Domain Ownership: You must prove ownership of the email domain to which the Mark Certificate is being issued.

Once the registered logo has been submitted in the correct format, DMARC has been configured correctly, all necessary documents have been submitted, and company and applicant validation has been completed, DigiCert will issue the Mark Certificate within 3 to 5 business days. The faster the validation steps are completed, the sooner you will have your Mark Certificate ready to use.

Your Mark Certificate will remain valid, but your logo will not display. In order to continue to display your logo, you must be actively enforcing DMARC, as indicated by your BIMI record.

Mark Certificates do not act like a typical TLS certificate. They do not encrypt traffic, use a private key or require a CSR to order. Mark Certificates assert a cryptographically verifiable and auditable binding between an identity, a logo, and a domain. This ensures that the identified organization is operating on a domain that they own when sending emails to end-users.

Like TLS/SSL certificates, the maximum validity period for a Brand Certificate is 397 days. With our 2- and 3-year subscription plans, we will notify you when it is time to renew, and automatically issue a valid certificate before your current certificate expires.