Article 67 - Restitutio in integrum

1. The applicant for or holder of a registered EU design or any other party to proceedings before the Office who, in spite of all due care required by the circumstances having been taken, was unable to observe a time limit vis-à-vis the Office shall, upon application, have his rights re-established if the non-observance in question has the direct consequence, by virtue of the provisions of this Regulation, of causing the loss of any rights or means of redress.

2. The applicant shall file the application in writing within two months of the removal of the cause of non-observance of the time limit. The omitted act shall be completed within that period. The application shall only be admissible within the year immediately following the expiry of the unobserved time limit. In the case of non-submission of the request for renewal of registration or of non-payment of a renewal fee, the further period of six months following the expiry of registration provided for in Article 50d(3) shall not be deducted from the period of one year. 

3. The application shall state the grounds on which it is based and shall set out the facts on which it relies. It shall not be deemed to be filed until the fee for the re-establishment of rights has been paid. If restitutio in integrum is granted, the fee shall be reimbursed.

4. The department competent to decide on the omitted act shall decide upon the application.

5.Non-observance of the time limits laid down in paragraph 2 of this Article and in Article 67a shall not give rise to re-establishment of rights as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

6. Where the applicant for or holder of a registered EU design has his rights re-established, he may not invoke his rights vis-à-vis a third party who, in good faith, in the course of the period between the loss of rights in the application for or registration of the registered EU design and publication of the mention of re-establishment of those rights, has put on the market products in which a design included within the scope of protection of the registered EU design is incorporated or to which it is applied.

7. A third party who may avail himself of the provisions of paragraph 6 may bring third party proceedings against the decision re-establishing the rights of the applicant for or holder of the registered EU design within a period of two months as from the date of publication of the mention of re-establishment of those rights.

8. Nothing in this Article shall limit the right of a Member State to grant restitutio in integrum in respect of time limits provided for in this Regulation and to be complied with vis-à-vis the authorities of such State.