Article 57

1.   Any documents filed by a party to proceedings shall be submitted by post, personal delivery or electronic means.
The details concerning electronic submissions shall be determined by the President of the Office.

2.   The date of receipt of any document filed by parties to proceedings shall be deemed to be the date on which a document is in fact received on the premises or in the case of a document filed by electronic means, when the document is received electronically by the Office.

3.   With the exception of annexed documents, any documents filed by parties to proceedings must be signed by them or their procedural representative.

Where a document is submitted to the Office by electronic means, the indication of the name of the sender and the electronic authentication, consisting of a successful submission of login and password, shall be deemed to be equivalent to the signature.

4.   If a document has not duly been signed, or where a document received is incomplete or illegible, or where the Office has doubts as to the accuracy of the document, the Office shall inform the sender accordingly and shall invite him to submit the original of the document signed in accordance with paragraph 3, or to retransmit a copy of the original, within a time limit of one month.
Where the request is complied with within the period specified, the date of receipt of the signed document or of the retransmission shall be deemed to be the date of the receipt of the first document. Where the request is not complied with within the period specified, the document shall be deemed not to have been received.

5.  Such document submitted by a party to proceedings must be communicated by electronic means or on paper to the other parties and to the Examination Office concerned.

In case of paper submissions, documents relating to the proceedings, to two or more applications for a Community plant variety right or to an exploitation right, shall be filed in a sufficient number of copies. Missing copies shall be provided at the expense of the party concerned.