Filing of appeal

Any party, entirely or partially adversely affected by the decision of the State Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter: the Office), shall have the right  to file an appeal within 30 days from the date of communication of the decision. The appellant shall pay administrative fee and charges for filing an appeal, not later than the expiry of time limit for an appeal. The appeal shall be filed with the Office and recorded by the Secretariat of the Boards of Appeal, a separate organisational unit of the Office.

The appeal shall be filed in two copies  and shall contain:

• an indication of a decision appealed
• a statement defining whether the decision is contested in its entirely  or in part
• the grounds  for appeal
• a statement of reasons for appeal, and all the evidence supporting the appellant′ s allegations contained in the appeal
• the signature of the appellant  
• power of attorney, if the appeal is filed through a representative.

The Secretariat of the Boards of Appeal shall examine whether such appeal is timely, admissible and issued by an authorised person, and whether it contains formal deficiencies that can prevent a decision making. The Secretariat shall also examine whether the payment of administrative fee and procedural charges for filing appeal has been made and whether a prescribed power of attorney is enclosed to the file in case the party appointed an representative in the procedure.

After establishing the regularity of appeal, the Secretariat shall communicate such appeal and its file to the Office, as a competent authority issued a decision appealed, for a statement. In case a decision appealed was issued in a bipartite procedure, the Secretariat shall, prior to communicating such appeal to a decision making authority, communicate such appeal to other party requiring a statement to appealed  allegations.

If competent authority which issued a decision considers the appeal to be well founded, the appealed decision shall be replaced by a new one. In the case a new decision on appeal was not taken, appeal shall be submitted to the Secretariat of the Boards of Appeal without delay.

Taking into consideration the circumstances and nature of each individual case, the President of  the Boards of Appeal shall, among the members appointed for the Board, designate three persons for the Board of appeal and a Chairman from among them to decide on an individual appeal. A Board of Appeal appointed for each individual case, shall take decisions at a session by a majority vote of the appointed members. The minutes shall be kept on the sessions which shall be attached to the appeal case file.

Against decisions of the Board of Appeal a legal action may be taken before the Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia, within 30 days from the date of receipt of a decision.