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Patents Act, 1978 (Act No. 57 of 1978)

Regulations

Patent Regulations, 1978

1A. Electronic Services

 

 

(1) The Registrar may direct by notice in the Gazette that any requirement under the Act or these regulations, including requirements in respect of information, records and payment, may or must be satisfied in electronic form, subject to the provisions of the operational requirements.

 

(2) The Registrar must publish operational requirements on the CIPRO portal setting out the requirements, processes and procedures in respect of all or certain electronic services, including -
(a) registration procedures;
(b) identification, authentication and verification;
(c) form and format of records;
(d) manner and form of payment;
(e) information security requirements; and
(f) record retention requirements.

 

(3) The operational requirements may be published in different forms over different parts of the CIPRO portal.

 

(4) Unless another form of electronic signature is specified in the operating requirements, any signature requirement under the Act or these regulations in respect of a record to be accessed from or lodged with CIPRO is satisfied by the CIPRO customer entering his access code on the CIPRO system and any record lodged after the CIPRO customer having entered the access code shall be deemed to have been duly signed by the person whose signature is required under the Act or these regulations for purposes of such record.

 

(5) Where any form under the Act or regulations makes provision for a signature and such form is deemed to be signed as provided for in sub-regulation (4), it shall not be necessary to have recorded on such form that it had been signed.

 

(6) Unless CIPRO receives prior written notification from the holder of an access code to disable such access code, CIPRO shall be entitled to accept that the person using electronic services is the person to whom the access code was issued or such person’s duly authorized representative acting within the scope of such person’s authority.

 

(7) CIPRO may suspend or terminate electronic services at any time without incurring any liability for doing so: Provided that proper notice of such suspension or termination shall be given and that such suspension or termination will not effect existing rights of any person who has been using such electronic services.