CHAPTER III

TRADITIONAL TERMS
SECTION 5

Cancellation procedure

Grounds of cancellation
Article 44
The grounds for cancelling a traditional term shall be that it no longer meets the definition laid down in Article 54(1) of Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 or the requirements laid down in Articles 31, 35, 40(2), 41(3) or 42.

Submission of a request of cancellation
Article 45
1
A duly substantiated request of cancellation may be filed with the Commission by a Member State, a third country or a natural or legal person having a legitimate interest in accordance with the form set out in Annex IX. The request of cancellation shall be submitted to the Commission in paper or electronic form. The date of submission of the request of cancellation to the Commission is the date on which the request is entered in the Commission's mail registry. This date shall be made available to the public by appropriate means.
2
The Commission shall mark the documents making up the request for cancellation with the date of receipt and the file number allocated to the request of cancellation.
The author of the request of cancellation shall receive an acknowledgement of receipt indicating at least:
a
the file number;
b
the number of pages received; and
c
the date of receipt of the request.
3
Paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply when the cancellation is initiated by the Commission.

Admissibility
Article 46
1
For the purposes of determining whether a request of cancellation is admissible, the Commission shall verify that the request:
a
mentions the legitimate interest of the author of the request of cancellation;
b
the ground(s) for cancellation; and
c
refers to a statement from the Member State or third country where the residence or registered office of the author of the request is located explaining the legitimate interest, reasons and justification of the author of the cancellation.
2
Any request for cancellation shall contain details of the facts, evidence and comments submitted in support of the cancellation, accompanied by the relevant supporting documents.
3
If detailed information concerning the grounds, facts, evidence and comments, as well as the supporting documents referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, have not been produced at the same time as the request of cancellation, the Commission shall inform the author of the request of cancellation accordingly and shall invite him to remedy the deficiencies noted within a period of two months. If the deficiencies are not remedied before the time limit expires, the Commission shall reject the request as inadmissible. The decision on inadmissibility shall be notified to the author of the request of cancellation and to the Member State or the third-country authorities or the author of the request of cancellation established in the third country in question.
4
Any request of cancellation that is deemed admissible, including Commission own-initiative cancellation procedure, shall be notified to the Member State or the third-country authorities or the author of the request of cancellation established in the third country whose traditional term is affected by the cancellation.

Scrutiny of a cancellation
Article 47
1
If the Commission has not rejected the request of cancellation in accordance with Article 46(3), it shall communicate the request of cancellation to the Member State or the third-country authorities or the applicant established in the third country in question and shall invite him to file observations within two months from the issuance date of such communication. Any observations received within this two months period shall be communicated to the author of the request of cancellation.
In the course of the scrutiny of a cancellation, the Commission shall request the parties to submit comments, if appropriate, within a period of two months from the issuance date of such request, on the communications received from the other parties.
2
If the Member State or the third-country authorities or the applicant established in the third country in question or the author of a request of cancellation files no observations in response, or does not respect the time periods, the Commission gives ruling on the cancellation.
3
Any decision to cancel the traditional term concerned shall be taken by the Commission on the basis of the evidence available to it. It shall consider whether the conditions referred to in Article 44 are no longer fulfilled.
Such decision on cancellation shall be notified to the author of the request of cancellation and to the Member State or the third-country authorities in question.
4
In the event of multiple requests of cancellation, following a preliminary examination of one or more such requests of cancellation, it may not be possible to accept to continue to protect a traditional term, in which case the Commission may suspend the other cancellation procedures. In this case the Commission shall inform the other authors of the request of cancellation of any decision affecting them which was taken in the course of the procedure.
Where a traditional term is cancelled, cancellation procedures which have been suspended shall be deemed to be closed and the authors of the request of cancellation concerned shall be duly informed.
5
When a cancellation takes effect, the Commission shall remove the name concerned from the list set out in Annex XII.