A certificate of proof is one page, a PDF from a folder you sealed yourself or from a counterparty who wants you to trust a file. Each line answers a different question, and each line has a limit. Here is the page top to bottom, with what every entry proves and what it leaves open.
The heading
It says "CERTIFICATE" and, under that, "Copyright Original". That names the document type: a certificate for one sealed folder version. It decides nothing about who holds copyright in the files below. Under Article 6 of the Swiss Copyright Act, the author is the natural person who created the work, and a heading cannot settle that.
"Sealed for" and the name
This is the account holder, the person whose account held the folder when the version was sealed. It proves which account sealed these files. It does not prove that the named person wrote them. Article 8 paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act presumes the author is the person whose name appears on copies or the publication of the work itself. A certificate is a separate record, so read the name as the account holder and nothing wider.
The sealed date and time
Written YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, in UTC, so that one moment reads the same in every time zone the PDF is opened in.
The time comes from the sealing moment. A cryptographic fingerprint of the file was sent to Swisscom Trust Services, the qualified trust service provider, which signed it with a key that never leaves its hardware. The signature carries an RFC 3161 timestamp and is embedded back into the PDF. Under Article 41(2) of the eIDAS Regulation, a qualified electronic time stamp enjoys the presumption of the accuracy of the date and time it indicates and the integrity of the data bound to it.
So this line proves the files existed in exactly this form at that moment and have not changed since. It does not prove when they were written or who wrote them, and it does not prove that what they say is true.
The identity block
Some certificates carry Surname, Name, DOB, Country and Passport No, the number masked with asterisks. Some do not. The block appears when that version was sealed after the account holder passed identity verification, a passport check through DIDIT provided via Swisscom Trust Services. Without it, the block is absent.
The block is a snapshot taken at sealing; a later change to the holder's identity record never rewrites an issued certificate. It proves a verified person held this account when this version was sealed, not that this person is the author.
The "Copyright-sealed documents" table
One row per file, read left to right.
File name. The name the file had when it was sealed. Renaming your copy later breaks nothing; the proof rests on the next entry.
Hash. A cryptographic fingerprint of the file's contents. Anyone with the file and a hashing tool can compute the same fingerprint and compare. A match means the file in hand is the sealed file; one changed character gives a different fingerprint. Sealing never alters the original, so your copy should match. The hash proves identity of content, nothing about its meaning.
ISCC Codehash and ISCC. A content code under ISO 24138:2024, shown when the file format is supported. A file whose format cannot be fingerprinted this way is still sealed and timestamped, and still has its hash; its row simply has no ISCC entry. ISCC codes and content labels require identity verification.
AI Declaration. When the file carries a declaration, its labels show here. There are six content labels, and each content and version carries exactly one AI label. HUMAN AUTHORED goes together with AI FREE and no other AI label. HUMAN APPROVED can sit with any AI label and must come from a different person than the author. The two HUMAN labels are bound to a verified identity. A label is a declaration by the account holder. The seal fixes it in time and does not check it.
Human authors, Approved by, Rights claimed, Other rights holders. What the holder stated at sealing. Under Article 7 of the Copyright Act, where two or more persons have contributed as authors, copyright belongs to all of them jointly, so "Other rights holders" deserves a close read. Every entry here is self-declared: the certificate proves the statement was made, and when, not that it is true.
The QR code, the Cert ID and the marks
The QR code opens the public verification page for that folder and that version, no login needed. The "Cert ID" line is the folder id that page belongs to.
Along the bottom sit the marks: Swiss, ZertES, eIDAS, UAE PASS and ProLitteris. ZertES is the Swiss act on electronic signatures, eIDAS its EU counterpart, and ProLitteris the escrow partner in the Swiss Copyright Registry. The footer reads "Issued by Swiss Trust Layer". A mark is a mark, not a verdict on the files above.
Two ways to check it
The certificate is a summary. The proof is checkable in two ways, and neither needs an account. Scan the QR code and compare the page with the paper. Or upload the sealed PDF itself to the public validator: no registration, and it shows who signed, when, with which certificate, and whether the content was modified after signing. It recognizes qualified signatures under eIDAS and ZertES, processes signature metadata and does not store the document.
If a counterparty sends the certificate without the sealed file, ask for the file. A certificate alone can be read, not validated.
What can change later, and what cannot
A certificate can be updated for the same version, with the ISCC data of its files and the holder's verified identity, and no new version is created. The hashes and declared labels of an issued version never change on re-seal. New files or new declarations mean a new sealed version with its own certificate.
One step this week
Take one certificate, your own or one you were sent, and go through it with this page open. Scan the QR code, then upload the sealed PDF to the validator. If both agree with the paper, you know what you hold. For the questions the other side will put to any PDF, read ten questions a lawyer will ask about your PDF. For handing the verification page to others, see the verification link in your email signature.
Seal your first document on Swiss Trust Layer or read the full mechanism on how it works.
