Electronic seals

• Confirmation of authorship vs. electronic legal act
• The locking effect of an electronic seal
• How electronic seals work in Signi

Confirmation of authorship vs. electronic legal act

An electronic seal is effectively the equivalent of a company stamp imprinted on a paper document. It ties the document to a specific organization. What is the difference between an electronic seal and an electronic signature? It is similar to the difference between a company stamp and a handwritten signature.

• Electronic seal = Confirmation of document authorship - For example, an electronic seal on an issued invoice or on an order confirms the authorship of the electronic document for the purposes of a tax inspection. The tax office will then find it difficult to argue that the supplier did not issue the document. An electronic seal does not express any will or legal act of anyone.
• Electronic signature = Electronic legal act - With an electronic signature, the signing persons confirm their will, their legal act. It significantly speeds up and streamlines company processes involving signatures of customers, suppliers, or employees

The locking effect of an electronic seal

When an electronic seal is inserted into a document, it locks the document against further changes. This means that a document with a seal can no longer be signed via Signi; after uploading it to Signi, you will see an error message.

Important: A document that is sealed with an electronic seal and locked for changes cannot be uploaded to Signi.

How electronic seals work in Signi

By default, all documents signed in Signi are sealed with the electronic seal of the organization Digital Factory s.r.o., which is the operator of the Signi service. In the event of a dispute, the court or supervisory authority turns to this organization, which provides it with information about the origin and history of the document.

When using the Signi "Custom electronic seal" feature, the Signi operator's electronic seal is replaced with the electronic seal of the organization that is the document's proposer. If you are interested, contact sales@signi.com with the subject "I want a custom electronic seal". However, a custom seal is more of a cosmetic matter; from a legal and technical point of view, there is no difference compared to the Signi seal.

Caution!!! When using a custom seal, you must ensure its ongoing validity, which is typically one or two years, and repeatedly upload it to Signi. This ensures that a valid seal is inserted into the document at the time of signing. You can read more about time validity and related timestamps in this article

Caution!!! During the translation of some programs, e.g. Adobe Reader, inaccuracies occurred. The program reports that an electronic signature is inserted in the document, when in fact it is an electronic seal. This also applies to documents from Signi displayed in programs such as Adobe Reader. This is an incorrect translation of the term electronic seal.