Order — ECLI:EU:T:1999:312
Date: 1999-12-08
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;Procedural provisions
Concepts: Admissibility and examination of applications, forms of order sought and pleas in law
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Order 
Procedure — Application initiating proceedings — Procedural requirements — Must be 
signed by a lawyer who is a third party independent of the applicant — Where the 
applicant company is represented by a lawyer who is also one of its directors — 
Inadmissible 
(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 17, third and fourth paras, and Art. 19, first 
para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 43(1), first subpara.) 
II - 3555 
SUMMARY — CASE T-79/99 
For the purposes of bringing an action 
before the Court of First Instance, a 'party' 
within the meaning of the third paragraph 
of Article 17 of the Statute of the Court — 
applicable to the Court of First Instance 
pursuant to Article 46 of that Statute — 
must use the services of a third party who 
must be authorised to practise as a lawyer 
before a court of a Member State or of 
another State which is a party to the 
Agreement on the European Economic 
Area. 
A lawyer so authorised who is one of the 
two directors of the applicant company and 
therefore its 'controlling organ' cannot be 
considered as a 'third party' who is inde­
pendent of the applicant and, accordingly, 
an application initiating the proceedings 
signed by that lawyer is inadmissible. 
II - 3556