Council Regulation (EC) No 2100/94Show full title

CHAPTER VI U.K. MISCELLANEOUS CONDITIONS GOVERNING PROCEEDINGS

Article 75 U.K. Statement of grounds on which decisions are based, right of audience

Decisions of the Office shall be accompanied by statements of the grounds on which they are based. They shall be based only on grounds or evidence on which the parties to proceedings have had an opportunity to present their comments orally or in writing.

Article 76 U.K. Examination of the facts by the Office of its own motion

In proceedings before it the Office shall make investigations on the facts of its own motion, to the extent that they come under the examination pursuant to Articles 54 and 55. It shall disregard facts or items of evidence which have not been submitted within the time limit set by the Office.

Article 77 U.K. Oral proceedings

1. Oral proceedings shall be held either on the initiative of the Office itself or at the request of any of the parties to proceedings.

2. Without prejudice to paragraph 3, oral proceedings before the Office shall not be public.

3. Oral proceedings before the Board of Appeal including delivery of the decision, shall be public in so far as the Board of Appeal before which the proceedings are taking place does not decide otherwise in circumstances where serious and unwarranted disadvantages could arise from admitting the public, particularly for any of the parties to the appeal proceedings.

Article 78 U.K. Taking of evidence

1. In any proceedings before the Office, the means of giving or obtaining evidence may include the following:

(a) hearing the parties to proceedings;

(b) requests for information;

(c) the production of documents or other evidence;

(d) hearing the witnesses;

(e) opinions by experts;

(f) inspection;

(g) sworn affidavits.

2. Where the Office decides through a collective body, that body may commission one of its members to examine the evidence adduced.

3. If the Office considers it necessary that a party to proceedings, witness or expert give evidence orally, it shall either:

(a) issue a summons requiring the relevant person to appear before it; or

(b) request the competent judicial or other authority in the country of domicile of the relevant person to take the evidence as provided for in Article 91 (2).

4. A party to proceedings, witness or expert who is summoned before the Office may request it to allow his evidence to be heard by the competent judicial or other authority in his country of domicile. On receipt of such a request or in the case that no reaction was given to the summons, the Office may, in accordance with Article 91 (2), request the competent judicial or other authority to hear the evidence of that person.

5. If a party to proceedings, witness or expert gives evidence before the Office, the Office may, if it considers it advisable that the evidence be given under oath or otherwise in binding form, request the competent judicial or other authority in the country of domicile of the relevant person to hear his evidence under the requisite conditions.

6. When the Office requests a competent judicial or other authority to take evidence, it may request it to take the evidence in binding form and to permit a member of the Office to attend the hearing and question the party to proceedings, witness or expert either through that judicial or other authority or directly.

Article 79 U.K. Service

The Office shall of its own motion effect service of all decisions and summonses, and of notifications and communications, from which a time limit is reckoned, or which are required to be served either in pursuance of other provisions of this Regulation or by provisions adopted pursuant to this Regulation or by order of the President of the Office. Service may be effected through the competent variety offices of the Member States.

Article 80 U.K. Restitutio in integrum

1. Where, in spite of having taken all due care in the particular circumstances, the applicant for a Community plant variety right or the holder or any other party to proceedings before the Office has been unable to observe a time limit vis-à-vis the Office, his rights shall, upon application, be restored if his failure to respect the time limit has resulted directly, by virtue of this Regulation, in the loss of any right or means of redress.

2. Applications shall be filed in writing within two months after the cause of non-compliance when the time limit has ceased to operate. The act omitted shall be completed within this period. Applications shall be admissible only within the period of one year following the expiry of the time limit which has not been observed.

3. An application shall be accompanied by a statement of the grounds on which it is based and the facts on which it relies.

4. The provisions of this Article shall not apply to the time limits referred to in paragraph 2 nor to the time limits specified in Article 52 (2), (4) and (5).

5. Any person who, in a Member State, has in good faith used or made effective and genuine arrangements to use a variety which is the subject of a published application for grant of a Community plant variety right, or of a Community plant variety right that has been granted, in the course of a period between the loss of rights pursuant to paragraph 1 in respect of the application or of a Community plant variety right that has been granted and the restoration of those rights, may without payment continue such use in the course of his business or for the needs thereof.

Article 81 U.K. General principles

1. In the absence of procedural provisions in this Regulation or in provisions adopted pursuant to this Regulation, the Office shall apply the principles of procedural law which are generally recognized in the Member States.

2. Article 48 shall apply mutatis mutandis to the staff of the Office in so far as it is involved in decisions of the kind referred to in Article 67, and to the staff of the Examination Offices, in so far as it participates in measures for the preparation of such decisions.

Article 82 U.K. Procedural representative

Persons who are not domiciled or do not have a seat or an establishment within the territory of the Community may participate as party to proceedings before the Office only if they have designated a procedural representative who is domiciled or has his seat or an establishment within the territory of the Community.