What Is Proof of Deposit?
Depositing a file on Ziplo answers two distinct needs. Proving you are the author of a creation at a given date: that is proof of prior art. Or demonstrating that an operation was frozen within the deadline set by a regulation: that is compliance. The mechanism is the same in both cases — a certain date, a retained file, and no way to alter it afterwards.
Proof of prior art
Copyright protects literary, graphic, sound or audiovisual, and plastic creations, musical creations, software, applied art creations, or fashion creations. Copyright does not protect ideas or concepts.
Article L.111-1 of the Intellectual Property Code states that 'the author of a work of the mind enjoys, by the mere fact of its creation, an exclusive incorporeal property right that is enforceable against all.'
How to Protect Your Creations?
To protect your creations, you need to prove that you are the author. You must provide what is called 'prior proof.' It is necessary to attribute a certain date to your creation.
With Ziplo, you can obtain prior proof with our timestamping system. Simple, convenient, and cost-effective. When you upload your document to our secure site, we record a fingerprint of it, timestamp it, and return a deposit certificate to you. We can keep your document for as long as you need it as prior proof.
Meeting a regulatory obligation
Many regulatory obligations do not merely require producing a document: they require proving it existed, unchanged, at a precise date. Minutes to be frozen in the days following a meeting, an audit file to be closed on the date the report is signed, records to be kept for an imposed period. A Ziplo deposit provides the three elements these obligations demand.
- A certain date. Qualified timestamping fixes the moment of deposit independently and verifiably: your own clock is not what counts, a trusted third party’s is.
- Retention for the legal period. You choose how long Ziplo keeps the file itself — not just its fingerprint — up to the period your regulation imposes.
- A file that cannot be modified. Once deposited, the file can no longer be changed: the slightest alteration would no longer match the timestamped fingerprint. That is exactly what a regulation asks you to demonstrate.
Timestamping
Timestamping means associating a certain date and time with a file or an operation, so that the exact moment it took place can be established later. A so-called qualified timestamp goes further: it is issued by a trust service provider qualified under the European eIDAS regulation, a qualification granted in France by ANSSI. That is the level Ziplo uses.
Qualified timestamping, operated by Certigna
Ziplo does not issue its own timestamps. They are delivered by Certigna, a trust service provider certified by ANSSI, qualified both as a certification authority and as a timestamping authority.
A qualified timestamp carries a legal presumption that the date is accurate and the file intact, recognised in every European Union member state. The tokens issued comply with the European standard ETSI EN 319 421 and with RFC 3161: your deposit therefore remains verifiable by a third party, independently of Ziplo.
The Value of Blockchain
A blockchain is a public, distributed ledger: anyone can check its contents, nobody can rewrite them.
We record the fingerprint of your certificate there. Your deposit stays verifiable on its own, without relying on our servers.
Start protecting your creations with Ziplo