Search forintellectual property rights for patents
When the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) examines the protectability of a patent, a search for possible conflicting prior art publications is carried out by the DPMA when the search or examination request is filed. This search is based on extensive databases and the many years of experience of the searcher and forms the basis for any examination of protectability that may be carried out. This gives a granted patent a high degree of legal certainty, as the public can rely on the DPMA’s qualified assessment of the granted patent against the previously known prior art.
Own search before filing the patent application
However, when drafting a patent application, it is helpful to obtain your own overview of the state of the art in the relevant technical field before the DPMA examines the eligibility for protection in order to focus the patent application and in particular the patent claims on those aspects of the invention that are most likely to be new and inventive compared to the state of the art. For this purpose, the applicant’s own knowledge of the relevant market should be used and, if necessary, a search for existing technical property rights should be carried out.
Search for industrial property rights for utility models
When a utility model is registered, no search is carried out by the DPMA. This can be requested separately with the utility model application, which is advisable in order to obtain an overview of the relevant prior art and to decide from this point of view whether or to what extent action should be taken against possible infringers on the basis of the registered but unexamined utility model. Additionally or alternatively, own searches can also be carried out, but these should be done in the course of drafting the utility model applications in order to be able to incorporate these findings into these application documents.