Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2001:168
Date: 2001-06-20
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Trade marks;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property
Concepts: Restitutio in integrum;General
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Community trade marks — Filing of Community trade mark applications — Date of 
filing — Payment of the application fee after expiry of the time-limit of one month 
from filing of the application for registration — Compatibility with certain interna­
tional conventions on the protection of industrial property 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Art. 27) 
II - 1797 
SUMMARY — CASE T-146/00 
2. Community trade marks — Filing of Community trade mark applications — Date of 
filing — Payment of the application fee after expiry of the time-limit of one month 
from filing of the application for registration — Lapse of the right to be accorded the 
date when the application was lodged as a filing date — Entitlement to restitutio in 
integrum — Conditions 
(Council Regulation No 40/94, Arts 27 and 78) 
1. Under Article 27 of Regulation 
No 40/94 on the Community trade 
mark, the award of a date of riling in 
respect of a trade mark application that 
coincides with the date on which 
documents are filed with the Office 
for Harmonisation in the Internal 
Market (Trade Marks and Designs) is 
subject to payment of the application 
fee within a period of one month. None 
of the Paris Convention for the Protec­
tion of Industrial Property of 20 March 
1883, the Munich Convention of 
5 October 1973 on the Grant of Eur­
opean Patents, or the Patent Coopera­
tion Treaty adopted in Washington on 
19 June 1970 establish any principle 
with which Article 27 of Regulation 
No 40/94, in so far as it imposes such a 
condition, must be considered to be 
incompatible. 
(see paras 33-36) 
2. Where a member of staff of the appli­
cant's representative inadvertently 
places the file on a Community trade 
mark application on a stack of pending 
national files with entirely different 
time-limits for the payment of the 
application fee, that constitutes an 
instance of non-observance within the 
meaning of Article 78 of Regulation 
No 40/94 on the Community trade 
mark. 
In that situation, where the error is not 
noticed within a short time by means of 
the system for verifying time-limits in 
force in the representative's office, all 
due care required by the circumstances 
which is a condition for entitlement to 
restitutio in integrum, is not shown to 
have been taken. 
(see paras 55-61) 
II - 1798