Judgment_paragraph 38 · Research and Production Company ‘Melt Water’ UAB v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) (T-61/13)

38According to settled case-law, no derogation from the European Union rules on procedural time-limits may be made save where the circumstances are quite exceptional, since the strict application of those rules serves the requirements of legal certainty and the need to avoid any discrimination or arbitrary treatment in the administration of justice (Case 42/85 Cockerill-Sambre v Commission [1985] ECR 3749, paragraph 10). Regardless of whether such circumstances are considered unforeseeable or to amount to force majeure or excusable error, they include, in any event, a subjective element involving the obligation, on the part of the party acting in good faith, to exercise all the care and diligence required of a normally well-informed trader to monitor the course of the procedure set in motion and to comply with the prescribed time-limits (see, to that effect, Case C-195/91 P Bayer v Commission [1994] ECR I-5619, paragraphs 31 and 32; Case C-426/10 P Bell & Ross v OHIM [2011] ECR I-8849, paragraphs 47 and 48; and order in Case T-468/10 Doherty v Commission [2011] ECR II-1497, paragraphs 18, 19, 27 and 28 and the case-law cited).