Published: 10.03.2022.
Updated: 18.04.2023.

The Patent Office will accept  electronically signed documents issued abroad if they are signed in the European Union eDocument standard format (ASiC-E) and the professional patent attorney simultaneously submits a certificate of validity of the digital signature retrieved from the official website of the European Union at https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/DSS/webapp-demo/validation, or from another website, indicating the address where the Patent Office can check the electronic document, if necessary.

If the document is signed with a digital signature issued in third countries, the Patent Office  will accept such a document if it is accompanied by a statement from the professional patent attorney that he/she have verified its authenticity.

Documents signed with a digital signature issued abroad should be sent to the Patent Office's e-mail at pasts@lrpv.gov.lv

Q & A about electronically signed documents issued abroad

Answer:

Under Article 6 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (hereinafter – eIDAS Regulation), Member States accept documents that have been electronically signed by a secure electronic signature issued in another Member State if certain conditions are met.

The Latvian Electronic Documents Law foresees that a certificate issued in a foreign country shall have the legal status and legal effects of a qualified certificate if it conforms to at least one of the following conditions:

1) it has been issued by a trusted certification service provider registered in the supervisory institution of a Member State of the European Union;

2) it has been issued by a trusted certification service provider performing entrepreneurship in a third country in accordance with Article 14 of eIDAS Regulation.

When submitting a document signed with a secure electronic signature issued in a foreign country, the person shall notify the institution where it can validate online that the qualified certificate has been issued by a trusted certification service provider. If the electronically signed document comes from a Member State of the European Union, the qualified certificate can be validated on the official EU homepage: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/DSS/webapp-demo/validation. Whereas the list of the trusted certification service providers can be found here: https://esignature.ec.europa.eu/efda/tl-browser/#/screen/home

Taking this into account, if the electronically signed document corresponds to the rules set by the eIDAS Regulation and the Latvian Electronic Documents Law (the qualified certificate has been issued by a trusted certification service provider that can be validated), the Patent Office will accept these documents as signed. However, according to the trusted service provider list, DocuSign Inc is not an EU recognised qualified trusted service provider. Therefore, documents signed with certificates issued by DocuSign Inc will not be considered as qualified certificates and will not be accepted by the Patent Office as electronically signed documents.