South Africa – Copies of Supporting Documents Now Accepted by the Registrar of Patents
Traditionally, formal documents (i.e. Forms P.3/D.3, P.26 and assignments) for filing in support of patent and design applications had to be executed by way of an original/wet signature. However, the Registrar has recently issued a practice note setting out a number of changes in procedure including the Registrar ‘s discretion to accept assignment documents or invention disclosure agreements , executed electronically (like DocuSign) . There is no discretion provided in so far as the execution of the other formal documents are concerned and we shall thus have to await further clarification in this regard.
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