Your company logo next to every email you send and, in Gmail, the blue verification tick. Anyone sending fraudulent emails in your brand’s name gets no logo and no tick.
Illustration. The line marked “fraud” is a phishing email impersonating Sooma.
Brands already showing a verified logo in Gmail
Sooma
CGD
BPI
Santander
Worten
Fnac
TAP
idealista
IKEALogos as each brand publishes them in its BIMI record (checked on 7 October 2026).
What changes between VMC, CMC and GMC is what you can prove about the logo. Answer one of these and you know where to start.
A figurative mark (the logo, not just the name) registered at the EUIPO or another accepted office. A registration only at INPI, Portugal’s national office, does not qualify for a VMC.
Logo on mobile and desktop: Gmail (iPhone, Android and web) and Apple Mail (iPhone and Mac), with the blue tick in Gmail.
Request a VMCNo registered trademark, or a mark registered only nationally or only as a word mark. You just need to prove continuous use of the logo on your website, on social media or in dated materials.
Logo in Gmail, on mobile (iPhone and Android) and the web, without the blue tick. Apple Mail does not show it. Moves up to a VMC once you register the mark at the EUIPO.
Request a CMCMinistries, municipalities, public institutes, schools and universities whose coat of arms or symbol is set in legislation, with no trademark registration.
Logo on mobile and desktop: Gmail (iPhone, Android and web) and Apple Mail (iPhone and Mac), with the blue tick in Gmail.
Request a GMCNot sure? Choose “Not sure” in the request and we will tell you which one fits, with no obligation. Registering the trademark at the EUIPO is not included, but we point the way to anyone who needs it.
A BIMI certificate does not change a line of your emails. It changes how they arrive: with your logo, verified, and more likely to be opened, read and answered.
A recognisable logo makes the email stand out in a full inbox and tells the recipient for sure who sent it. Yahoo measured +10% opens1; in a study of more than a thousand consumers, the increase was 21%2.
Purchase intent rises 34% when the logo appears in the inbox2, and 64% of consumers say they are more willing to click or act on an email with a verified logo3.
Confidence in the email’s legitimacy rises 90% with a verified logo2. Gmail’s blue tick tells the recipient the company has proved it owns the domain and the brand.
Every email, opened or not, is an impression of your brand in the message list. Five seconds of exposure to the logo increases brand recall by 18%2.
BIMI requires DMARC at enforcement: fake emails sent in your domain’s name are rejected or go to spam. And a look-alike domain will never have your logo or the tick.
A domain with BIMI is authenticated and aligned, which is the sender profile Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have required since 20245 and treat better. Fewer emails in spam, more emails read.
Illustrations using the BIMI logos these brands publish. The emails are fictional, as are the Clinic, the City Council and the Example Bank. The exact look varies slightly between email clients.
Enter how many emails your company sends a month and your current open rate. The estimate applies the +10% to +21% range of extra opens measured in published studies1 2.
Indicative estimate. Actual results depend on your list, your content and your recipients’ email clients.
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is the standard email providers use to show the sender’s logo. It only works when three things are in place.
Your domain must reject, or quarantine, emails that are not yours (DMARC at enforcement). We check where it stands and, if anything is missing, help you get there without losing legitimate mail.
A certification authority validates the company, the person making the request and the right to the logo — through the registered trademark (VMC), public use for more than 12 months (CMC) or the law that assigns it (GMC).
We prepare the logo in the required format, host the logo and certificate on Sooma servers in the EU and publish the record in DNS. From then on, Gmail, Apple Mail and the others show the logo.
Typical time from a complete request: 2 to 6 weeks for a VMC, 1 to 4 weeks for a CMC.
Apple Mail only shows logos with a VMC or GMC. Gmail’s verification tick only appears with a VMC or GMC; with a CMC, the logo appears without the tick.
The difference between the three is how the right to the logo is proved. The service is the same: we handle the request, the validation and the publication.
For companies whose logo is registered as a trademark.
Annual contract · plus VAT
Or €1,250 a year paid upfront: 10 months, you save €250
SoomaFor companies without a registered trademark, using the logo publicly for more than 12 months.
Annual contract · plus VAT
Or €1,000 a year paid upfront: 10 months, you save €200
For public bodies whose symbol or coat of arms is defined by law, with no trademark registration needed.
Annual contract
Trademark registration not included. Each certificate covers one logo; additional domains with the same logo on request.
Only three authorities are on the BIMI Group’s list of mark certificate issuers today: DigiCert, GlobalSign and SSL.com. GlobalSign is the only one of European origin.
Founded in Leuven, Belgium, in 1996, GlobalSign keeps its Belgian legal entity (GlobalSign nv-sa) and has been part of the Japanese GMO group since 2006. It is the authority we use by default for all BIMI certificates.
A US authority, headquartered in Utah, and one of those that has issued the most VMC certificates since BIMI began. If you prefer DigiCert as your Certification Authority, we respect that at no extra cost.
In the inbox, the result is the same with either: the recipient sees the logo and the tick, not the authority that issued the certificate.
| VMC Most complete | CMC | GMC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proof of the right to the logo | Registered trademark | Public use for 12 months or more | Legislation |
| Needs a registered trademark | Yes, at the EUIPO or another accepted office | No | No |
| Works with a mark only at INPI (Portugal) or a word mark | No | Yes | — |
| Logo in Gmail, on mobile and the web | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blue tick in Gmail | Yes | No | Yes |
| Logo in Apple Mail, on iPhone and Mac | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tick in Apple Mail, on iPhone and Mac | No, only with an S/MIME certificate | No, only with an S/MIME certificate | No, only with an S/MIME certificate |
| Typical validation time | 2 to 6 weeks | 1 to 4 weeks | On request |
| Monthly price (annual contract) | €125/month | €100/month | On request |
| Annual payment (10 months) | €1,250/year | €1,000/year | On request |
For all three: logo also in Yahoo, AOL and Fastmail; no logo in Outlook and Microsoft 365; DMARC at quarantine or reject; certificate valid for one year and renewed by us while the contract is active. Apple Mail reserves the tick for emails signed with the sender’s S/MIME certificate, regardless of BIMI; that is what we handle at smime.pt.
Sooma.com Web Services is a European company, based in Portugal, that manages more than 100,000 mailboxes on servers in the EU, for businesses, operators and institutions. Authentication, DMARC and deliverability are our everyday work, and that is what BIMI is built on.
We reply on the next business day with a diagnosis of the domain, the right certificate for your case and the steps until the logo appears. No obligation.
Prefer to talk? +351 210 205 164, business days, 9:00 to 18:00 Lisbon time, or support@sooma.com.
Not for now. INPI is not on the list of offices accepted for mark certificates. Accepted offices include the EUIPO (European Union trade mark), Benelux, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. If your trademark is only national, there are two routes: register the logo as an EU trade mark at the EUIPO, or start right away with a CMC, which does not require registration.
It depends on the logo. The current rules allow word marks when the logo shows exactly that text, with limited rearrangements that the certification authority assesses case by case. If the logo has a symbol as well as the text, you need the registered figurative mark. Send us the registration number and the logo and we will tell you before going ahead.
Three things. 1) DMARC with a p=quarantine or p=reject policy applied to all mail (no pct below 100), with SPF or DKIM aligned with the sender’s domain; GlobalSign asks for the policy to have been active for at least 30 days. Every platform sending on behalf of the domain, mail server, CRM, invoicing or newsletters, must pass DMARC. 2) The logo converted to SVG Tiny PS and the PEM certificate, hosted over HTTPS on our servers. 3) A TXT record at default._bimi.<domain> with v=BIMI1; l=<svg url>; a=<certificate url>. Your team can publish the record or, if you give us DNS access, we publish it. If DMARC is not yet at enforcement, we help you get there without losing legitimate mail.
Typically 2 to 6 weeks for a VMC and 1 to 4 weeks for a CMC, counted from a request with complete documentation. Validation includes checking the company, an identity check by video call and, for a VMC, confirming the trademark. Once the BIMI record is published, email providers can take up to 72 hours to show the logo.
Because it is the only authority of European origin among those issuing recognised mark certificates, and many of our customers prefer to keep European suppliers. The result in the inbox is the same as with DigiCert. If you prefer DigiCert, say so in your request: the price is the same.
No. Mark certificates are used exclusively to show the logo in email (BIMI). They do not protect a website over HTTPS or sign or encrypt messages (S/MIME). Those need their own certificates. To sign and encrypt emails, and get the tick in Apple Mail, see our sister service smime.pt.
One certificate corresponds to one logo. Several domains with the same logo can, depending on the authority, go on the same certificate; each different logo needs its own. Tell us which domains and we will suggest the most economical option.
The logo is bound to the certificate, byte for byte. A logo change requires a new certificate — and, for a VMC, the new logo must also be registered as a trademark. Plan the change with us in advance.
Not on its own. What stops anyone sending in your domain’s name is DMARC at enforcement, which is a prerequisite for BIMI. The logo adds a visible signal: your customers get used to seeing it, and an email without it starts to stand out.
The certificate is valid for one year and renewed by us while the contract is active. If the contract ends, the certificate is not renewed and, once it expires, the providers that require it stop showing the logo.