Electronic seals

• Confirmation of authorship vs. electronic legal transactions 
• Locking effect of the electronic seal 
• What about electronic seals in Signi 

Confirmation of authorship vs. electronic legal transactions 

An electronic seal is the de facto equivalent of a corporate seal imprinted on a paper document. It binds the document to a specific organization. What is the difference between an electronic seal and an electronic signature? Similar to the difference between a corporate seal and a handwritten signature.

• Electronic seal = Confirmation of authorship of a document - For example, an electronic seal on an invoice issued or on an order confirms the authorship of an electronic document for tax audit purposes. The tax authorities will then find it difficult to argue that the document was not issued by the supplier. The electronic seal is not the manifestation of any will, legal act of anyone.

• Electronic signature = Electronic legal action - By electronic signature the signatories confirm their will, their legal action. Significantly speeds up and streamlines business processes involving customer, supplier or employee signatures

Locking effect of the electronic seal 

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

What about electronic seals in Signi 

By default, all documents signed in Signi are sealed with the electronic seal of the Digital Factory s.r.o. organization, which is the operator of the Signi service and whose statutory officer is Ondřej Synovec, whose name is included in the data on the seal. In the event of a dispute, the court or the audit office contacts this organisation, which provides information on the origin and history of the document

When using Signi's "Own Electronic Seal" function, the electronic seal of the Signi operator is replaced by the electronic seal of the organisation proposing the document. If interested, contact sales@signi.com with the subject "I want a custom electronic seal". However, the custom seal is more of a cosmetic issue, legally and technically there is no difference against the Signi seal.

Attention!!! When using your own seal, you must ensure its ongoing validity, which is typically a year or three, and upload it repeatedly to Signi. This will ensure that a valid seal is embedded in the document at the time of signing. Read more about time validity and related time stamps in this article.

Attention!!! There were inaccuracies in the translation of some programs, e.g. Adobe Reader. The program announces that an electronic signature is embedded in the document, but 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.