6. 2. 96 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 28/11 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 216/96 of 5 February 1996 laying down the rules of procedure of the Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1994 on the Community trade mark (*), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 3288/94 (3), and in parti- cular Article 140 (3) thereof, Whereas Regulation (EC) No 40/94 (hereinafter ‘the Regulation’) creates a new trade mark system allowing a trade mark having effect throughout the Community to be obtained on the basis of an application to the Office for Harmonizaiton in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (‘the Office’); Whereas for this purpose the Regulation contains in particular the necessary provisions for a procedure leading to the registration of a Community trade marks, as well as for the administration of Community trade marks, for appeals against decisions of the Office and for procee- dings in relation to revocation or invalidity of a Commu- nity trade mark; Whereas under Article 130 of the Regulation, the Boards of Appeal are to be responsible for deciding on appeals from decisions of the examiners, the Opposition Divi- sions, the Administration of Trade Marks and Legal Divi- sion and the Cancellation Divisions; Whereas Title VII of the Regulation contains basic princi- ples regarding appeals against decisions of examiners, the Opposition Divisions, the Administration of Trade Marks and Legal Division and the Cancellation Divisions ; Whereas Title X of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2868/95 of 13 December 1995 implementing Council Regulation No 40/94 on the Community Trade Mark () contains implementing rules to Title VII of the Regula- tion ; Whereas this Regulation supplements those other rules, in particular as regards the organization of the Boards and the oral procedure ; Whereas before the beginning of each working year a scheme should be established for the distribution of busi- ness between the Boards of Appeal by an Authority established for that purpose ; whereas to this end the said () OJ No L 11, 14. 1. 1994, p. 1. () OJ No L 349, 31. 12. 1994, p. 83. () OJ No L 303, 15. 12. 1995, p. 1. Authority should apply objective criteria such as classes of products and services or initial letters of the names of applicants ; Whereas to facilitate the handling and disposal of appeals, a rapporteur should be designated for each case, who should be responsible inter alia for preparing communi- cations with the parties and drafting decisions ; Whereas the parties to proceedings before the Boards of Appeal may not be in a position or may not be willing to bring questions of general relevance to a pending case to the attention of the Boards of Appeal ; whereas, therefore, the Boards of Appeal should have the power, of their own motion or pursuant to a request by the President, to invite the President of the Office, to submit comments on ques- tions of general interest in relation to a case pending before the Boards of Appeal ; Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee estab- lished under Article 141 of the Regulation, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION : Article 1 Allocation of duties and Authority competent to allocate 1. Before the beginning of each working year, duties shall be allocated to the Boards of Appeal according to objective criteria, and the members of each of the Boards and their alternates shall be designated. Any member of a Board of Appeal may be designated for several Boards of Appeal as a member or an alternate. These measures may, . where necessary, be amended during the working year in question. 2. The measures referred to in paragraph 1 shall be taken by an Authority composed of the President of the Office as Chairman, the Vice-President of the Office responsible for the Boards of Appeal, the Chairmen of the Boards of Appeal and three other members of the Boards of Appeal elected by the full membership of those Boards, except the Chairmen, for the working year in question. The Authority may validly deliberate only if at least five of its members are present, including the Presi- dent or the Vice-President of the Office and two Chairmen of Boards of Appeal. Decisions shall be taken by majority vote. In the event of a tie, the vote of the Chairman shall be decisive. The Authority may lay down its internal rules of procedure.