Excerpt:
There is rarely the definition of the word ‘signature’ in the English legislation. Neither the Electronic Communications Act, 2000, nor the Regulations, defined this terminology. Judicial decisions in the UK have tended to define this terminology more. In the case of Goodman v. J. Eban Ltd[3] the court held that the use of rubber stamps on a document satisfied the requirement of a signature. Also in Newborne v. Sensolid (Great Britain’s) Ltd[4] typewriting was held to be a signature. In Murison v. Cook[5] a holograph will merely signed as ‘your loving mother’ was also held to be signature of the testator. In the words of Sir Raymond Evershed M.R, in Goodman v. J. Eban Ltd[6] ‘it follows, then, I think, that the essential requirement of signing is the affixing, either by writing with a pen or pencil or by otherwise impressing on the document, one’s name or signature to authenticate the document.’ In Re a debtor[7] the court held that a fax which bore the scanned signature of a person as a valid signature.
