DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo currently recognize the same core group of 17 national and regional trademark offices for registered-mark VMC validation. However, office recognition is only the first eligibility check. The trademark must also be granted and active, the submitted logo must exactly match the registered word mark or figurative mark, and the applicant must demonstrate the required relationship to the trademark and domain. Final eligibility and certificate approval remain subject to the selected Certificate Authority’s current validation rules.
A trademark can be legally valid and active but still fail to support a VMC application if the selected Certificate Authority does not recognize the issuing office or registration system. Those are two separate evaluations — legal validity in your jurisdiction, and inclusion on the specific list a CA uses for Verified Mark Certificate issuance. Confusing those two evaluations can cause an otherwise promising VMC application to stall.
How Are Trademark Offices Approved for VMC Validation?
Certificate Authorities do not select trademark offices arbitrarily; they issue VMCs under established Mark Certificate validation requirements and maintain supported-office lists accordingly. DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo currently recognize the same core group of 17 national and regional intellectual property offices, but office recognition is only the first check—the trademark must also be granted and active, the submitted logo must match the registered mark, and the applicant must satisfy the issuer’s ownership, organization and domain-validation requirements.
A Valid Trademark Office and an Accepted Trademark Office Are Not the Same Question
Many national and regional authorities issue legally valid trademark registrations. VMC eligibility is narrower because the selected Certificate Authority must be able to validate the mark through an office or registration system it supports. A registration from an office outside the selected CA’s confirmed validation scope may not qualify through that issuer — though a different supported CA path may recognize it, unpublished validation support may still exist and require direct confirmation, and appearing on a list is not by itself final application approval.
Not necessarily. A trademark can be granted, active, and fully enforceable under local law and still not qualify through a specific issuer if that CA’s confirmed validation scope doesn’t currently cover the registering office. Legal validity and CA-level office acceptance are evaluated separately, and acceptance can differ between issuers. Organizations with registrations at offices outside the DigiCert/GlobalSign baseline shown below should confirm acceptance directly with their chosen CA, or review a Common Mark Certificate as an alternative path.
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If your organization’s trademark comes from an office outside this baseline, that isn’t a dead end — see What If Your Trademark Office Isn’t Accepted for VMC Validation? for the available paths and decision factors. This article focuses on which offices are documented as recognized and how confident you can be in that documentation.
How to Read This Directory
Before using the table below, understand what it does and doesn’t tell you
- This directory reflects the current 17-office baseline published by DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo. It identifies the national and regional intellectual property offices currently recognized for registered-mark VMC validation.
- Office recognition does not confirm registration-level eligibility. Your registration still has to be active, matched to the logo you’re using, and tied to an applicant who can demonstrate the right to use it.
- Registration status, mark match, ownership and domain relationships still require validation regardless of whether the issuing office appears in this directory.
- Accepted-office lists can change. Each CA maintains and updates its list independently.
- The directory’s last-reviewed date is visible in the byline above and repeated here: this table was checked against primary DigiCert and GlobalSign sources on July 28, 2026. Verify the list hasn’t changed if you’re reading this well after that date.
Recognized Trademark-Office Directory for DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo
DigiCert and GlobalSign currently publish the same 17-office set for VMC trademark validation. The table below represents that verified shared baseline. It should not be interpreted as a universal acceptance list for every Certificate Authority or every individual application. Each entry links to the office’s official registry so you can confirm your own registration directly at the source.
| Country / Region | Trademark Office or System | Abbrev. | Registration Scope | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | |||||
| United States | United States Patent and Trademark Office | USPTO | National | ||
| Canada | Canadian Intellectual Property Office | CIPO | National | ||
| Europe and Regional Systems | |||||
| European Union | European Union Intellectual Property Office | EUIPO | Regional — 27 member states | ||
| United Kingdom | UK Intellectual Property Office | UKIPO | National | ||
| Germany | Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt | DPMA | National | ||
| France | French Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) | INPI | National | ||
| Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) | Benelux Office for Intellectual Property | BOIP | Regional — 3 member states | ||
| Spain | Spanish Patent and Trademark Office O.A. | SPTO | National | ||
| Switzerland | Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property | IPI | National | ||
| Denmark | Danish Patent and Trademark Office | DKPTO | National | ||
| Sweden | Swedish Intellectual Property Office | PRV | National | ||
| Asia-Pacific | |||||
| Japan | Japan Patent Office | JPO | National | ||
| South Korea | Korean Intellectual Property Office | KIPO | National | ||
| Australia | IP Australia | IP Australia | National | ||
| New Zealand | Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand | IPONZ | National | ||
| India | Intellectual Property India | IP India | National | ||
| Latin America | |||||
| Brazil | Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial | INPI Brazil | National | ||
17 offices shown, representing the verified DigiCert/GlobalSign shared baseline only — not a universal list for every VMC-issuing CA. WIPO/Madrid System registrations are not listed as a separate row — see the dedicated section below on how Madrid designations are evaluated. No office is included simply because it appeared in the prior version of this article; every row was checked against current DigiCert and GlobalSign documentation before inclusion.
How Madrid Protocol and WIPO Registrations Are Evaluated
The WIPO Madrid System lets a trademark owner file one international application and designate multiple member countries or regions for protection. WIPO administers this system, but WIPO itself is not treated as an eighteenth national or regional trademark office in the directory above — it’s a filing mechanism whose value for VMC purposes depends entirely on what happens after filing, at the level of each individual designation.
WIPO administers the Madrid System, but WIPO is not treated as another trademark office in the 17-office directory. A Madrid registration may include granted protection in one or more designated countries or regions. For VMC purposes, the applicant should identify the granted designation and ask the selected Certificate Authority whether it can validate that designation through a supported office or registration system. A Madrid filing or granted designation should not be assumed automatically eligible without issuer confirmation.
In practice, this means a Madrid-based applicant should locate the country-by-country status of their designations and raise each relevant designation directly with the selected CA, rather than assuming a granted designation in a listed jurisdiction automatically carries the same treatment as a direct registration there. This is business-readable context about how validation is structured, not legal advice about filing or managing a Madrid application — an IP attorney is the right resource for the filing itself.
Do DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo Accept the Same Trademark Offices?
Based on the current public documentation reviewed, all three issuers reference the same 17 recognized national and regional trademark offices. This does not mean every application is interchangeable between issuers: registration status, mark type, ownership, applicant relationships, documentation and CA-specific validation practices still matter. Applicants should confirm the selected issuer’s latest requirements before submitting a request.
This is a reasonable point of variance to expect rather than a red flag: each CA maintains and updates its own list on its own schedule and through its own documentation practices. A specialist working across DigiCert, GlobalSign and Sectigo can help confirm where a given office currently stands without contacting each CA separately. For a broader look at how the three issuers differ in process and support model, see Compare VMC Providers. This article does not rank or compare the three CAs on service quality or pricing — the accurate answer, based on available documentation, is that two publish matching lists and one requires direct confirmation.
Four Checks Before Relying on a Trademark-Office Listing
A directory like this one is a starting point, not a substitute for confirmation. Before treating any trademark as VMC-ready based on office recognition alone, work through these four checks.
Is the registration granted and active — not pending?
A pending application, however far along, does not satisfy VMC validation. Confirm the registration number and active status directly with the issuing office.
Is the specific office — or, for Madrid filings, the specific designated jurisdiction — confirmed by the CA you plan to use?
Recognition varies by issuer. Confirm with that CA directly rather than assuming this directory or any third-party list is current for your chosen issuer, particularly for Sectigo where no comparable public list exists.
Does the registration protect the mark you’re actually using in email?
The logo submitted for BIMI must satisfy the issuing CA’s mark-matching requirements and correspond sufficiently to the protected mark. For the detail behind mark types and logo-matching rules, see Which Trademark Registrations Qualify for a VMC?
Can the applying entity demonstrate the owner/domain relationship?
If the entity applying for the VMC isn’t the entity named on the trademark registration, the CA needs documentation connecting them before the office recognition question even matters. See Does the Trademark Owner Need to Match the Company Applying for a VMC?
What If Your Trademark Office Isn’t Listed?
An office missing from this directory doesn’t mean the trademark is invalid — it means that specific office wasn’t confirmed as part of the DigiCert/GlobalSign baseline at review time. A few concrete next steps: ask our VMC specialist to confirm directly, since accepted-office lists aren’t always published in full, and this is especially true for Sectigo; check whether a different authorized CA recognizes the same office, since practice varies between issuers; review your organization’s full trademark portfolio for a registration at an already-recognized office that could apply instead; and consider a Common Mark Certificate, which may provide an alternative prior-use path without relying on an accepted trademark-office registration — a CMC has its own eligibility and validation requirements and isn’t an automatic fallback.
Trademark Registered. What’s Next?
Move from trademark ownership to verified logo display with a Verified Mark Certificate.