Trademark appeal: Wiedereinsetzung for missed fee payment due to attorney fault under § 91 MarkenG and § 85 ZPO

The Federal Patent Court's 26th Senate granted the applicant's petition for reinstatement into the previous legal standing, effectively waiving the deadline for paying the appeal fee and allowing the trademark complaint to proceed. The dispute arose from a trademark complaint procedure concerning a word/figurative mark application, where the applicant failed to timely deposit the appeal fee due to a procedural failure. The court determined that the applicant had plausibly demonstrated, without fault attributable to herself or her legal representative, that she was prevented from making the payment in time, thereby satisfying the requirements for equitable relief. The decision was grounded in the German Trademark Act (§ 91 Abs. 1 Satz 1 MarkenG) regarding reinstatement and applied the standard of personal fault from the Code of Civil Procedure (§ 85 Abs. 2 ZPO) to attribute responsibility to the procedural representative.