What is a Verified Mark Certificate? (VMC)

Definition

A Verified Mark Certificate is a digital certificate, issued by a certificate authority authorized for the BIMI ecosystem (DigiCert and Entrust were the first; the BIMI Group maintains the current list), that attests you have the right to use the logo referenced by your BIMI DNS record. The classic evidence is a registered trademark on the logo; issuance also involves identity verification of the organization. The certificate, published alongside your logo via the record's a= tag, is how a mailbox provider distinguishes “this brand's verified mark” from “an SVG somebody uploaded.”

When you need one

It depends on the receiver. Gmail and Apple Mail require a certificate before they display a BIMI logo. Yahoo has displayed logos without one for some senders. So a BIMI record without a VMC is valid DNS and may show your logo in some inboxes, but the one most people care about (Gmail) stays blank. For brands without a registered trademark, the newer Common Mark Certificate (CMC) accepts evidence of established prior use of the logo instead, at the cost of a modest difference in treatment.

What it costs, practically

VMCs are an annual subscription from the issuing CA, historically in the range of a four-figure sum per year, plus the one-time cost of a trademark registration if you do not have one. That price tag is why sensible advice runs: get DMARC to enforcement first (a hard prerequisite anyway: BIMI only activates at quarantine or reject), publish the record and the compliant SVG, and buy the certificate only when the brand value justifies it.

The pipeline in one line

Enforced DMARC → BIMI TXT record at default._bimi → SVG Tiny P/S logo → VMC (or CMC) → logo in supporting inboxes. Every stage is checkable; the BIMI guide walks the details.