eSignature Legality in Colombia

Use Cases that are not appropriate for Electronic Signatures

Use cases that are specifically barred from digital or electronic processes or that include explicit requirements, such as handwritten (e.g. wet ink) signatures or formal notarial process that are not usually compatible with electronic signatures or digital transaction management.

• Notarization – real property transfer contracts and deeds but not lease contracts and other contracts related to real estate, which can be signed validly via electronic signature
• Notarization – intangible property transfers (e.g., patent and copyright assignments – but not non-exclusive patent, copyright or other IP licenses, which can be validly signed via any form of electronic signature)
• Notarization – securitization documents, which usually include contracts of surety, mortgages, personal guarantees
• Notarization – family law contracts or agreements (e.g., marriage contracts, prenuptials, divorce settlement agreements, adoptions, etc., contracts governed by the law of succession, such as contracts of inheritance, contracts waiving inheritance, inheritance sale)
• Notarization – government means forms and documentation to be submitted to government agencies, including valid eMudhra contracts and documents when they have to be submitted for registration in government registries

List of Local Trust Service Providers

“Digital Signature” means a transformation of a message using an asymmetric cryptosystem such that a person having the initial message and the signer’s public key can accurately determine

(a) whether the transformation was created using the private key that corresponds to the signer’s public key;
(b) whether the message has been altered since the transformation was made

[1] An AES is an “advanced electronic signature”, a type of electronic signature that meets the following requirements:
(a) it is uniquely linked to the signatory;
(b) it is capable of identifying the signatory;
(c) it is created using means that are under the signatory’s sole control;
(d) it is linked to other electronic data in such a way that any alteration to the said data can be detected.

[2] A QES is a specific digital signature implementation that has met the particular specifications of a government, including using a secure signature creation device, and been certified as ‘qualified’ by either that government or a party contracted by that government.