12At the hearing, the applicant stated that its application must not be understood as meaning that it would raise a plea in law based on an irregularity in the procedure for notifying the contested decision. Besides, according to settled case-law, irregularities in the procedure for notifying a decision are extraneous to the decision and therefore cannot invalidate it (judgments of the Court of Justice in Case 48/69 ICI v Commission [1972] ECR 619, at paragraph 39; Joined Cases T-78/96 and T-170/96 W v Commission [1998] ECRSC I-A-239 and II-745, paragraph 183). Even if the provisions governing notification of a decision constitute an essential procedural requirement (see, to that effect, Case C-227/92 P Hoechst v Commission [1999] ECR I-4443, paragraph 72), it is clear that in the present case there has been no breach of an essential procedural requirement. The Office did in fact notify the contested decision to the applicant. So far as concerns the clerical error in the notice, it was corrected by the Registry of the Boards of Appeal within the procedural time-limits, so that the applicant was not prevented from defending its rights.
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