How to Register your Logo Trademark For Authenticated Email
Cementing your brand identity in the digital realm requires more than just a catchy slogan or vibrant imagery—it demands legal foresight and strategic planning. Even with social media, businesses still rely on email as the primary mode of communication, and embedding a logo in an email is not just an aesthetic and branding choice but a great way to ensure customers know an email is legitimate. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo now allow companies to authenticate their emails with logos.
Below, I address essential steps and requirements for registering and using logo trademarks in authenticated emails, ensuring your brand’s visual representation remains not only impactful but legally protected in the digital sphere.
Online Verification Background
The Twitter blue check (or the “X Verification”) is perhaps the best-known symbol that an online company has checked and verified that the information comes from who it says it does. While it caused a lot of controversy, the blue check certainly does provide some level of transparency to celebrity accounts.
Amazon has also taken steps to verify its sellers through its Amazon Brand Registry 2.0. This program gives registered trademark greater tools for protecting and enforcing the marketplace on their own.
There hasn’t been a similar development in email, despite email being around so much longer than Twitter and Amazon. Spoofing – the practice of a bad actor making an email appear to originate from someone else – has existed for years (decades?) without a solution. However, a consortium of companies finally assembled as the BIMI AuthIndicators Working Group to fight spoofing and other types of email fraud. Their solution was Verified Mark Certificate or “VMC” and the BIMI standards.
Verified Mark Certificates for Logos
A VMC is a digital certificate. When used in an email system, it tells the email system that the sender is authorized to display a BIMI logo. A BIMI logo corresponds to a BIMI record, which users register with BIMI to prove they are who they say they are.
Once you have a VMC, you can begin sending authenticated emails out that carry your logo and reassure your customers that they are actually dealing with you.
Obtain a VMC with a Registered Trademark
There are a few public and private requirements for obtaining a VMC:
- Registered trademark – you must have applied for and been granted a trademark by the USPTO
- Properly formatted image of your logo – more information here: https://bimigroup.org/svg-conversion-tools-released/
- DMARC enforcement – more information here: https://www.digicert.com/faq/email-trust/What-is-dmarc
- A BIMI record for your domain – more information here: https://bimigroup.org/implementation-guide/
Once you have the above, you can apply for a VMC through two entities, as of this writing:
By far the most difficult and time-intensive part of this process is registering your trademark. If you have not already filed for a trademark application, you would be smart to start now. As of this writing, the Trademark Office needs about 8 months to start reviewing a new application, and it needs about 14-15 months to fully review an application before registration. If you make mistakes in the initial application or fail to present a complete application, that timeline could stretch even longer. If you need help filing an application for trademark registration, please contact me at 602-281-6481.