Portuguese Interoperabilty

Source: Diario da Republica 1. Series – n.118 – 21st June 2011, Portuguese Parliament Law n. 36/2011, Unofficial translation


The Portuguese law defines interoperabilty as follows:


Article 1  Object
"The present act establishes the adoption of open standards for digital information in the Public Administration, promoting technological freedom of the citizens and organizations and interoperability of the State information systems."




"For the purposes of the present act, “interoperability” is considered to be the capacity of two or more systems, such as computers, media, networks, software and other components of information technology, to interact and exchange data according to a defined method aimed at obtaining the expected results."


Article 3 Definition:


"1 – For the purposes of the present act, “open standard” is considered to be the technical manner in which to publish, transmit and store information in digital format fulfils cumulatively the following requirements:
  a) Its adoption derives from a transparent decision process, available to the participation of all interested parties;
  b) Its respective specifications document has been published and is freely available, with no restrictions to its copy, distribution and utilization;
  c) Its respective specifications document does not incite cover non-documented actions or processes;
  d) Its applicable Intellectual Property Rights, including patents, has been made available wholly, irrevocably and irreversibly to the Portuguese State.
  e) There are no restrictions to its implementation."