L 172/4 Official Journal of the European Union 5.7.2005 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1041/2005 of 29 June 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 2868/95 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 on the Community trade mark (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the Community trade mark ('), and in particular Article 157 thereof, Whereas: 1 ©) According to Regulation (EC) No 40/94, it is necessary to adopt technical measures to implement dispositions concerning the standard form for the searches reports, division of the application and registration, revocation of decisions, authorisations, and decisions taken by a single member of the Opposition or Cancellation Division. After 10 March 2008 the search system will remain compulsory for Community trade marks, but it should be made optional, subject to the payment of a fee, for searches in the trade mark registers of the Member States which notified their own decision to carry out a search. A standard form comprising essential elements for the search report is hereby laid out with a view to improving the quality and uniformity of such search reports. The declaration of division and registration must comply with the elements set out in the present regulation. The new ex officio revocation of a decision or an entry in the register by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs) (The Office) must comply with the specific procedure as established in the present regulation. The exceptional cases where an authorisation is mandatory are specified. A list of simple cases where a decision can be taken by a single member of the Opposition or Cancellation Divisions is provided for. Furthermore, existing rules should be amended in order to improve or clarify the procedure for registration. In addition, certain procedural points should be amended without changing the substance of the system. In order to cover the specificities and facilities of the e-filing procedure, the following provisions are () OJ L 11, 14.1.1994, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 422/2004 (O] L 70, 9.3.2004, p. 1). (10) amended: Rule 1(1)(c), Rule 3(2), Rule 61, Rule 72(4), Rule 79, Rule 82, Rule 89(1) and (2). The electronic filing and electronic publication of Community trade mark applications should facilitate the filing of trade marks in general and in particular enhance the filing of trade marks consisting of colours per se or sounds by means of a representation of the mark which is clear, precise, self-contained, easily accessible, intelligible, durable and objective. The technical conditions, in particular the data format for sound files, should be laid down by the President of the Office. E-filing of trade marks consisting of sounds can be accompanied by an electronic sound file and this file can be included in the electronic publication of the Community trade mark applications to facilitate public access to the sound itself. The provisions concerning the opposition procedure should be reframed completely as to specify the admis- sibility requirements, to specify clearly the legal conse- quences of deficiencies and to bring the provisions in the chronological order of the proceedings. Following the additional competence of the Office for the examination of the admissibility of conversion the refusal of a request for conversion may become partial in the sense that conversion can be acceptable for some Member States but inadmissible for others. In addition, some criteria to be used for examining absolute grounds by reference to the language of a Member State should be added. Regarding costs to be born by the losing party in oppo- sition and cancellation procedures, reimbursable costs of the representation should be limited but the present maximum amounts should be increased slightly in view of the time elapsed since adoption of the Implementing Regulation. Where witnesses or experts are summoned, no such maximum rate should be provided but the reim- bursable costs shall comprise the actual amounts those witnesses and experts can claim. Commission Regulation (EC) No 2868/95 (3 should therefore be amended accordingly. (®» OJ L 303, 15.12.1995, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 782/2004 (O] L 123, 27.4.2004, p. 88).