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Dear colleagues,
Patent Office of Republic of Bulgaria has the following comments:
With regard to the discussed topic of signatures on paper documents, our Office does not find any legal obstacles to the introduction of Section 102bis in the PCT Administrative Regulations, regulating signing because the Patent Office of Republic of Bulgaria works as Receiving Office for PCT applications with national form accompanied by form PCT/RO/101 for filing PCT applications.
With regard to the text of Section 102bis, Signature on paper documents, introducing the provision: "The signature on a paper document must be handwritten, printed, typed or stamped", we support the proposal as it gives greater clarity, facilitation and transparency, which has many positive effects for applicants and IP offices performing PCT functions. Additionally , the terms "printed signature" and "stamped signature", are clearly understood for our point of view and could be retained if no other better proposal are not provided . In fact, it would be appropriate introduction of clarifying text, for each of the terms “printed, typed or stamped”, such as if the printed qualified electronic signature is considered to fall within the scope of one or both of the terms printed and typed.
