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Common Mark Certificate (CMC)

Common Mark Certificates (CMCs) allow companies to place a brand logo next to the "sender" field in customer inboxes—even before the message is opened.

The logo acts as confirmation of your domain's DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) status and your organization's authenticated identity.

CMCs also provide added validation and security to help protect your customers and your brand against phishing and spoofing attacks.

Before you begin

To qualify for a Common Mark Certificate:

  • Your domains must be fully DMARC compliant. DMARC combats email spoofing and phishing. See our blog post and guide to set up DMARC.

  • Your organization's logo must have been used for at least one year or be similar to your registered trademark.

  • The logo file used in your CMC certificate must be an SVG file that adheres to the SVG-P/S profile. Currently, most image editing tools do not support this profile and will require using a specific conversion tool or manually editing an SVG file. See our guide for properly formatting your logo.

Learn how to get a DigiCert Common Mark Certificate:

Certificate validation

DigiCert cannot issue a certificate before we complete the industry-required validation. The validation process for CMCs follows the same Extended Validation certificate requirements used for TLS certificates, with a few added steps for additional security. To learn more about the validation requirements see the following articles:

These steps include:

  • Confirm your logo has been used for at least a year or is similar to your registered trademark.

  • Provide notarized copies of personal identity documents to confirm the identity of the person at your organization applying for the CMC or conduct a live webcam interview with a member of DigiCert's validation team to validate the person's identity requesting the CMC.

  • Complete an in-person or video call meeting with a DigiCert validation member to confirm your identity matches those documents.

If this is your first time ordering a certificate, remember that DigiCert automatically begins the validation process once your order is placed. We will contact you if any additional information is required before issuing your certificate.

Differences between a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) and Common Mark Certificate (CMC)

VMC

CMC

DigiCert’s VMC supports two logo options:

  • Registered Trademark

  • Government Mark

DigiCert's CMC supports two logo options:

  • Prior Use Mark

    The Prior Use Mark is an unregistered Trademark, often called a Common Law Mark or Common Law Trademark. Unregistered or common law marks often use the "TM" or "SM" symbols.

    Prior Use requirements:

    • You must have used the logo for at least 12 months before the Mark verification date on a domain you control.

    • We can verify your logo use with the Archive Webpage Archive.org.

  • Modified Registered Trademark

Logo along with Googles Blue Checkmark* appear next to the "sender" field in customer inboxes.

Only your logo appears next to the "sender" field in customer inboxes.

*Note: Google will be expanding the blue checkmark out to mobile with support for Gmail on iOS and Android. The blue checkmark is currently only available on webmail. See Google Workspace Adds Checkmark Icon for Senders that have Adopted BIMI.

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