Examination as to formal requirements for filing
1. The Office shall examine whether the application complies with the requirements laid down in Article 36(1) for the accordance of a date of filing.
2. The Office shall examine whether:
(a) the application complies with the other requirements laid down in Article 36(2), (3), (4) and (5) and, in the case of a multiple application, Article 37(1) and (2);
(b) the application meets the formal requirements laid down in the implementing regulation for the implementation of Articles 36 and 37;
(c) the requirements of Article 77(2) are satisfied;
(d) the requirements concerning the claim to priority are satisfied, if a priority is claimed.
3. The conditions for the examination as to the formal requirements for filing shall be laid down in the implementing regulation.
Remediable deficiencies
1. Where, in carrying out the examination under Article 45, the Office notes that there are deficiencies which may be corrected, the Office shall request the applicant to remedy them within the prescribed period.
2. If the deficiencies concern the requirements referred to in Article 36(1) and the applicant complies with the Office's request within the prescribed period, the Office shall accord as the date of filing the date on which the deficiencies are remedied. If the deficiencies are not remedied within the prescribed period, the application shall not be dealt with as an application for a registered Community design.
3. If the deficiencies concern the requirements, including the payment of fees, as referred to in Article 45(2)(a), (b) and (c) and the applicant complies with the Office's request within the prescribed period, the Office shall accord as the date of filing the date on which the application was originally filed. If the deficiencies or the default in payment are not remedied within the prescribed period, the Office shall refuse the application.
4. If the deficiencies concern the requirements referred to in Article 45(2)(d), failure to remedy them within the prescribed period shall result in the loss of the right of priority for the application.
Grounds for non-registrability
1. If the Office, in carrying out the examination pursuant to Article 45, notices that the design for which protection is sought:
(a) does not correspond to the definition under Article 3(a); or
(b) is contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality, it shall refuse the application.
2. The application shall not be refused before the applicant has been allowed the opportunity of withdrawing or amending the application or of submitting his observations.
Registration
If the requirements that an application for a registered Community design must satisfy have been fulfilled and to the extent that the application has not been refused by virtue of Article 47, the Office shall register the application in the Community design Register as a registered Community design. The registration shall bear the date of filing of the application referred to in Article 38.
Publication
Upon registration, the Office shall publish the registered Community design in the Community Designs Bulletin as mentioned in Article 73(1). The contents of the publication shall be set out in the implementing regulation.
Deferment of publication
1. The applicant for a registered Community design may request, when filing the application, that the publication of the registered Community design be deferred for a period of 30 months from the date of filing the application or, if a priority is claimed, from the date of priority.
2. Upon such request, where the conditions set out in Article 48 are satisfied, the registered Community design shall be registered, but neither the representation of the design nor any file relating to the application shall, subject to Article 74(2), be open to public inspection.
3. The Office shall publish in the Community Designs Bulletin a mention of the deferment of the publication of the registered Community design. The mention shall be accompanied by information identifying the right holder in the registered Community design, the date of filing the application and any other particulars prescribed by the implementing regulation.
4. At the expiry of the period of deferment, or at any earlier date on request by the right holder, the Office shall open to public inspection all the entries in the register and the file relating to the application and shall publish the registered Community design in the Community Designs Bulletin, provided that, within the time limit laid down in the implementing regulation:
(a) the publication fee and, in the event of a multiple application, the additional publication fee are paid;
(b) where use has been made of the option pursuant to Article 36(1)(c), the right holder has filed with the Office a representation of the design.
If the right holder fails to comply with these requirements, the registered Community design shall be deemed from the outset not to have had the effects specified in this Regulation.
5. In the case of multiple applications, paragraph 4 need only be applied to some of the designs included therein.
6. The institution of legal proceedings on the basis of a registered Community design during the period of deferment of publication shall be subject to the condition that the information contained in the register and in the file relating to the application has been communicated to the person against whom the action is brought.
TITLE VI
SURRENDER AND INVALIDITY OF THE REGISTERED COMMUNITY DESIGN
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
