1.Any decision of the Office is to be signed by and to state the name of the member of staff duly authorised by the President of the Office in accordance with Article 35 of the basic Regulation.
2.Where oral proceedings are held before the Office, the decisions may be given orally. Subsequently, the decision in writing shall be served on the parties to proceedings in accordance with Article 64.
3.Decisions of the Office which are open to appeal under Article 67 of the basic Regulation or to direct action under Article 74 thereof shall be accompanied by a statement of that appeal or direct action if possible, together with the time limits provided for lodging such appeal or direct action. The parties to proceedings may not plead the omission of that statement.
4.Linguistic errors, errors of transcription and patent mistakes in decisions of the Office shall be corrected.
[F15. The Office shall cancel the entry in the Register of Community Plant Variety Rights or revoke the decision that contains an obvious procedural error attributable to negligence.]
Textual Amendments
1. Proceedings on nullity and cancellations as referred to in Articles 20 and 21, respectively, of the basic Regulation may be opened by the Office when there are serious doubts as regards the validity of the title. Such proceedings may be initiated by the Office on its own motion or upon request.
2. A request to the Office to open the proceedings on nullity or cancellation, as referred to in Articles 20 and 21, respectively, of the basic Regulation, shall be accompanied by evidence and facts raising serious doubts as to the validity of the title and shall contain:
(a) as regards the registration in respect of which nullity or cancellation is sought:
the registration number of the Community plant variety right;
the name and address of the holder of the Community plant variety right;
(b) as regards the grounds on which the request is based:
a statement of the grounds on which the request to open the proceedings on nullity or cancellation is based;
an indication of the facts, evidence and arguments presented in support of those grounds;
(c) the name and address of the person making the request and, where he has appointed a procedural representative, the name and address of that representative.
3. Any decision of the Office to reject a request as referred to in paragraph 2 shall be communicated to the person who made the request and the holder of the Community plant variety right.
4. The Office shall not take into account written submissions or documents, or parts thereof, that have not been submitted within the time limit set by the Office.
5. Any decision of the Office to declare null and void or cancel a Community plant variety right shall be published in the Official Gazette referred to in Article 87.]
Textual Amendments
1.Where the Office grants a Community plant variety right, it shall issue, together with the decision thereon, a certificate for the Community plant variety right as evidence of the grant.
[F1That certificate shall be delivered by the Office, in the form of a digital document, to the holder of the right or his procedural representative.]
2.The Office shall issue the certificate for the Community plant variety right in whichever official language or languages of the European Union is requested by the holder.
3.On request, the Office may issue a copy to the person entitled if it establishes that the original certificate has been lost or destroyed.
Textual Amendments
Unless otherwise provided, any communication by the Office or an Examination Office shall include the name of the competent member of the staff.
1.If the Office finds that a decision may not be adopted in the terms sought, it shall communicate the deficiencies noted to the party to the proceedings and shall require him to remedy those deficiencies within such time limit as it may specify. If the deficiencies noted and communicated are not remedied in good time, the Office shall proceed to take its decision.
2.If the Office receives observations from a party to proceedings, it shall communicate those observations to the other parties to the proceedings and shall require them, if it considers it necessary, to reply within such time limit as it may specify. If a reply is not received in good time, the Office shall disregard any document received later.
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.
[F2Where 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.
[F25. 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.]
Textual Amendments
[F21. Evidence of final judgments and decisions, other than those of the Office, or other documentary evidence to be submitted by a party to proceedings, may be furnished by submitting a digital document or uncertified copy.]
2.Where the Office has doubts as to the authenticity of the evidence referred to in paragraph 1, it may require submission of the original or a certified copy.