2011-09-14: 进入外国国家阶段申请的授权委托书必须由法定代表人签字吗？

德国华孙专利律师和律师事务所，2011年9月14日，德国慕尼黑

问：进入外国国家阶段申请的授权委托书必须由法定代表人签字吗？

答：对于进入欧专局的专利申请，欧专局准备的授权书模板上对签字的要求如下:

"Usual signature(s) of person(s) giving theauthorisation. Where the authorisation issigned on behalf of a legal person, only suchpersons as are entitled to sign by law and/orin accordance with the articles of associationor equivalent of the legal person may do so(Article 58, Rule 152(1)). An indication is tobe given of the signatory’s entitlement to sign(e.g. president, director, company secretary;Geschäftsführer, Prokurist, Handlungsbevollmächtigter;président, directeur, fondé depouvoir). If any other employee of a legal personsigns by virtue of a special authorisationconferred by the legal person, this is to be indicatedand a copy of the special authorisation,which need not be certifi ed, is to be supplied.An authorisation bearing the signature of aperson not entitled so to sign will be treated asan unsigned authorisation."

德国专利商标局在其专利申请指南上对授权书签字的要求如下:

"If the grantor of a power of attorney is not a natural person the signatory of the authorization has to prove convincingly his entitlement to sign the authorization by indicating his position or subjoining suitable other means of proof. In case of doubt the DPMA requests that proof is furnished under notarial authentication."

值得一提的是，一般来说，如果由欧洲专利律师递交欧洲专利申请，或由德国专利律师递交德国专利申请时，专利局并不要求提交授权书。