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Article 98

Language of proceedings

  1. The application for a registered Community design shall be filed in one of the official languages of the Community.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Parties to invalidity proceedings may agree that a different official language of the Community is to be the language of the proceedings.