The case law on "an isolated mistake in an otherwise satisfactory system" cannot be relied on to ignore a failure to act by the professional representative himself, unless there are special circumstances (T 1095/06).
In T 592/11 the board held that an isolated mistake by a professional representative in performing his check on the time limit once he has received the file to deal with was – as a rule at least – inexcusable (see also R 18/13 with reference to the travaux préparatoires).
In T 198/16 the representative did not notice that payment of the appeal fee had not been made. Different from an isolated mistake that an assistant may make, the board found that such a mistake was not excusable in a representative.
See also chapter III.E.5.5.4 e) "Ultimate responsibility of the representative".
Source: http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/caselaw/2019/e/clr_iii_e_5_4_1.htm
Date retrieved: 17 May 2021