Digital Certificates

WIPO Customer Certification Authority Information

Applicants wishing to submit an international application on-line will first need to apply for a digital certificate. It will be possible to obtain this certificate either through the WIPO or from any other certification authority whose certificate is recognized in accordance with the PCT electronic filing standard and accepted by the chosen receiving Office. 

The WIPO Customer certification authority will issue certificates corresponding to the low-level digital certificate defined in Annex F, Appendix II [PDF]. The applicant requests a digital certificate using his Internet browser and has to provide only his name and e-mail address. After the request has been approved by the WIPO Customer certification authority and the certificate is ready to be issued (normally within one working day), the applicant will receive an e-mail containing instructions on certificate retrieval.

The digital certificate is used by the PCT-SAFE system in digitally signing the international application and in creating a secure connection with the receiving Office for the transmission of the international application package. The secure connection ensures that the application is not legible during transmission, and the digital signature ensures that any alteration of the package is detectable. A high degree of integrity and security is therefore assured for PCT-SAFE data.

Important notices:  The WIPO Customer digital certificate may only be issued to individuals for the submission of PCT international applications, and is not intended for any other purpose. We do not issue certificates in the name of companies. Individuals working for companies are invited to apply for certificates using their own names. In addition, we expect the PCT user to have only one active certificate at any given time. This can, however, be used on as many PCs as necessary. The Digital ID Subscriber Agreement can be found on the enrollment page (see link below). Please be reminded that for picking up and for renewing your digital certificate you need to use the same PC and browser as for the original enrollment.

The WIPO Customer digital certificate is not issued automatically.  Each request is controlled and approved or rejected, as the case may be, by an administrator (Monday to Friday from 9:00 until 18:00 Central European time) and every attempt will be made to deal with submitted certificate requests within one business day. WIPO non-working days in 2010 are every Saturday and Sunday, as well as:

If you have questions or require assistance, please contact the PCT-SAFE Help Desk.