TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

The Draft of the Electronic Signature Act Will Soon be Submitted to the Congress

The Executive Yuan passed the Draft of the Electronic Signature Act on December 23, 1999, in which encompasses 13 articles. This Act will soon be submitted to the Legislative Yuan (Congress) for review and mandate. So long as this Act is enacted by the Congress, the electronic document and electronic signature will then have legal effect.

To promote the development of e-commerce and digitalized government, the government has set up a “Governmental Authentication and Management Center” to authenticate the electronic document. It is believed that after the enactment of this Draft, the e-commerce and the electronic transaction will be more secure and accurate.

The Draft provides that all of the document and signature for a traditional communication and transaction can be substituted by electronic material and electronic signature, provided that such electronic signature has been authenticated. One important provision of this Draft is that the electronic signature can be authenticated by private companies.