OHIM: applicant gaf geen voorrangsinstructie

OHIM Board of Appeal 7 september 2012, R 2596/2011-3(Dellice Holding Ltd. vs Indowoods S.A.) (traphekje)

Modellenrecht. Procesrecht. Niet tijdig betalen fees. Dellice Holding Ltd. is de houder van het Gemeenschapsmodellenrecht No 469150-0005 voor een ‘traphekje'. De inschrijving was ongeldig door het gebrek aan een individueel karakter van het Gemeenschapsmodel. Het beroep wordt afgewezen vanwege het niet-betalen van proceskosten, noch gaf de applicant een voorrangsinstructie bij meerdere beroepen in geval van een betalingstekort:

17. The appellant’s request that it should be left at its discretion which of its three appeals should be deemed not having been filed is to be rejected. Fees have to be paid separately for each and every appeal and each time the due date and the consequence of non-payment or late payment have to be addressed separately. The Regulation and the President’s Decision proceed from the principle that fees are duly paid and do not provide for a specific order to be maintained where several fees are due at the same time and the funds are insufficient. In the case of several appeals being filed at the same time, the fees are debited in the chronological order in which the appeals are forwarded by the Registry of the Boards of Appeals to the Register & Fees Service. Accordingly, the appellant’s current account was debited first with the appeal fees for appeals R 2594/2011-3 and R 2595/2011-3. Also the appellant itself did not give any instructions in the notices of appeal as to which appeal should be given priority in the case of a deficiency of payment. [red. cursivering]

18. To conclude, no payment of the appeal fee was made within the prescribed timelimit or even later and the present appeal is deemed not to have been filed.