WIPO PROOF provided a date- and time-stamped digital fingerprint of any file, proving its existence at specific point in time.

The WIPO PROOF service was launched by WIPO in 2020. Following a review of the program as part of WIPO's planning and budget exercise, it was decided to discontinue the WIPO PROOF service. The token generation service was therefore terminated on January 31, 2022.

All WIPO PROOF tokens remain indefinitely valid. It is always possible to verify the tokens using equivalent timestamping platforms or using readily available open source utilities.

Verification of WIPO Proof tokens

Tokens generated by the WIPO Proof service can be validated at any time, even though the service is no longer available.

The verification process compares the unique hash of the original file, with the hash contained in the WIPO PROOF token. To validate a token, it is necessary to be in possession of the unaltered original file for which the token was created, and the corresponding WIPO PROOF token. Please follow the instructions below.

Download the following:

  • The WIPO certificate authority chain: wipo_cachain.pem
  • The WIPO timestamping authority certificate: WIPO_TSA.crt

If you do not have openssl installed on your computer, it can be downloaded at https://www.openssl.org

Run the following command:

$ openssl ts -verify -data file.txt -in file.tsr -CAfile wipo_cachain.pem WIPO_TSA.crt

Where file.txt is the name of the original file (e.g. myfile.docx, myfile.mpg) and file.tsr is the name of the corresponding WIPO PROOF token.

The openssl utility will display a message to indicate whether or not the token is valid, i.e. whether or not the original file was timestamped on the date/time contained in the token.

About IP

Other IP services