Romanian IPO Improves Electronic Filing Services

While the online filing of industrial design applications has been available since 2014, on October 28, 2020, the Romanian IPO enabled the electronic submission of documents for the following post-grant procedures related to industrial designs:

• Changes related to the right holder (name and address);
• Changes related to the representative;
• Transfer of rights;
• Licenses;
• Renewals; and
• Oppositions.

Both trademark and patent applications can also be filed online, while the online submission of documents related to patent post-grant procedures is not yet available.

On a similar note, while the legislation providing for electronic signatures has been in force since 2001, the Romanian IPO only recently started accepting electronically signed documents, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on condition that they are digitally certified as required by the law.

The Government Emergency Ordinance No. 38/2020 on the use of documents in electronic form by public authorities and institutions was issued on March 30, 2020 in order to implement the Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC. The Emergency Ordinance was also issued to minimize close, face-to-face contact between the public administration authorities and the public.

In this context, the Romanian IPO announced that certified electronic signatures will be accepted when filing applications by means of the IPO’s electronic filing platform, as well as when filing other forms provided on the IPO’s website or other requests concerning IP rights registration procedures. The use of electronic signatures is not yet available for patent applications.

By: George Irimescu

For more information, please contact George Irimescu at our Romania office.