The new treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction promotes equity through the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from activities with respect to marine genetic resources (MGR) and digital sequence information (DSI). To obtain information about these activities, the treaty provides a framework for a ‘light touch’ notification system, leaving many questions about how it might work in practice. Using textual legal analysis, this chapter draws from the negotiation history to offer a detailed interpretation of articles 11 and 12 of the treaty and the key features of the notification system: collection and utilization notifications and procedures for access to MGR and DSI in repositories and databases. It offers practical considerations about how its innovative features such as the BBNJ Standardized Batch Identifier may work in practice and summarises some priority areas for clarification if the notification system is to be effective for years to come as technologies change.