28With regard to the question whether the correspondence of the claims and arguments of the parties can in the circumstances of this case relieve the Court of First Instance of the need to give a decision on the substance of the action, as the Office has suggested, it is to be noted that, despite the correspondence of the arguments of the parties on the substance of the case, the action has not become devoid of purpose. Notwithstanding the agreement between the parties, the contested decision has been neither amended nor withdrawn, the Office not possessing the power to do so or to give instructions to that effect to the Boards of Appeal, whose independence is enshrined in Article 131(2) of Regulation No 40/94 in the version applicable until 9 March 2004, now, in the current version, Article 131 (4). It follows that the applicant still has an interest in obtaining annulment of that decision.
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