Communication in writing or by other means
1. Subject to paragraph 2, applications for the registration of a Community design as well as any other application or declaration provided for in Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 and all other communications addressed to the Office shall be submitted as follows:
(a) by submitting a signed original of the document in question to the Office, by post, personal delivery, or by any other means; annexes to documents submitted need not be signed;
(b) by transmitting a signed original by fax in accordance with Article 66; or
(c) by transmitting the contents of the communication by electronic means in accordance with Article 67.
2. Where the applicant avails himself of the possibility provided for in Article 36(1)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of filing a specimen of the design, the application and the specimen shall be submitted to the Office by a single mail in the form prescribed in paragraph 1(a) of this Article. If the application and the specimen, or specimens in the case of a multiple application, are not submitted by a single mail the Office shall not give a filing date until the last item has been received pursuant to Article 10(1) of this Regulation.
Communication by fax
1. Where an application for registration of a Community design is submitted by fax and the application contains a reproduction of the design pursuant to Article 4(1) which does not satisfy the requirements of that Article, the required reproduction suitable for registration and publication shall be submitted to the Office in accordance with Article 65(1)(a).
Where the reproduction is received by the Office within a time limit of one month from the date of the receipt of the fax, the application shall be deemed to have been received by the Office on the date on which the fax was received.
Where the reproduction is received by the Office after the expiry of that time limit, the application shall be deemed to have been received by the Office on the date on which the reproduction was received.
2. Where a communication received by fax is incomplete or illegible, or where the Office has reasonable doubts as to the accuracy of the transmission, the Office shall inform the sender accordingly and shall call upon him/her, within a time limit to be specified by the Office, to retransmit the original by fax or to submit the original in accordance with Article 65(1)(a).
Where that request is complied with within the time limit specified, the date of the receipt of the retransmission or of the original shall be deemed to be the date of the receipt of the original communication, provided that where the deficiency concerns the granting of a filing date for an application to register a Community design, the provisions on the filing date shall apply.
Where the request is not complied with within the time limit specified, the communication shall be deemed not to have been received.
3. Any communication submitted to the Office by fax shall be considered to be duly signed if the reproduction of the signature appears on the printout produced by the fax.
4. The President of the Office may determine additional requirements for communication by fax, such as the equipment to be used, technical details of communication, and methods of identifying the sender.
Communication by electronic means
1. Applications for registration of a Community design may be submitted by electronic means, including the representation of the design, and notwithstanding Article 65(2) in the case of filing a specimen.
The conditions shall be laid down by the President of the Office.
2. The President of the Office shall determine the requirements for communication by electronic means, such as the equipment to be used, technical details of communication, and methods of identifying the sender.
3. Where a communication is sent by electronic means, Article 66(2) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
4. Where a communication is sent to the Office by electronic means, the indication of the name of the sender shall be deemed to be equivalent to the signature.
Forms
1. The Office shall make available free of charge forms for the purpose of:
(a) filing an application for a registered Community design;
(b) applying for the correction of an application or a registration;
(c) applying for the registration of a transfer and the transfer form and transfer document referred to in Article 23(4);
(d) applying for the registration of a licence;
(e) applying for renewal of registration of a registered Community design;
(f) applying for a declaration of invalidity of a registered Community design;
(g) applying for restitutio in integrum;
(h) taking an appeal;
(i) authorising a representative, in the form of an individual authorisation and in the form of a general authorisation.
2. The Office may make other forms available free of charge.
3. The Office shall make available the forms referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 in all the official languages of the Community.
4. The Office shall place the forms at the disposal of the Benelux Design Office and of the Member States' central industrial property offices free of charge.
5. The Office may also make available the forms in machine-readable form.
6. Parties to proceedings before the Office should use the forms provided by the Office, or copies of those forms, or forms with the same content and format as those forms, such as forms generated by means of electronic data processing.
7. Forms shall be completed in such a manner as to permit an automated input of the content into a computer, such as by character recognition or scanning.
CHAPTER XIV
INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
