The application for a registered Community design shall
be filed in one of the official languages of the Community.
The applicant must indicate a second language which
shall be a language of the Office the use of which he accepts as
a possible language of proceedings before the Office.
If the application was filed in a language which is not one of
the languages of the Office, the Office shall arrange to have the
application translated into the language indicated by the appli
cant.
Where the applicant for a registered Community design is
the sole party to proceedings before the Office, the language of
proceedings shall be the language used for filing the applica
tion. If the application was made in a language other then the
languages of the Office, the Office may send written communi
cations to the applicant in the second language indicated by the
applicant in his application.
In the case of invalidity proceedings, the language of
proceedings shall be the language used for filing the application
for a registered Community design if this is one of the
languages of the Office. If the application was made in a
language other than the languages of the Office, the language
of proceedings shall be the second language indicated in the
application.
The application for a declaration of invalidity shall be filed in
the language of proceedings.
Where the language of proceedings is not the language used for
filing the application for a registered Community design, the
right holder of the Community design may file observations in
the language of filing. The Office shall arrange to have those
observations translated into the language of proceedings.
The implementing regulation may provide that the translation
expenses to be borne by the Office may not, subject to a
derogation granted by the Office where justified by the
complexity of the case, exceed an amount to be fixed for each
category of proceedings on the basis of the average size of
statements of case received by the Office. Expenditure in excess
of this amount may be allocated to the losing party in accord
ance with Article 70.
Parties to invalidity proceedings may agree that a
different official language of the Community is to be the
language of the proceedings.