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  N. 13, Feb - Mar 2004 
IP & RTD: Articles 

Internet platform for official publications of the GPTO


Heiko Sabien
German Patent and Trade Mark Office, Munich
 
Until now, the printed documents and journals of the GPTO have constituted legally binding official publications.

Having established the necessary legal basis, the GPTO issues its official publications in electronic form only. This has become the legally binding form as from 1 January 2004. As of this date, the practice of printing documents and journals has been abandoned.

The GPTO has introduced an internet platform with a German and English user interface. On this platform, the official documents of the Patent Office and the Patent Gazette, Trade Mark Journal and Designs Gazette are published at 0:00 (CET), on the respective publication dates, starting from the first week of publication in 2004.

The German data of the respective type of IP right will be provided on the internet platform in two versions:

  • PDF version

    The Patent Gazette, Trade Mark Journal and Designs Gazette are provided as PDF files for download or printout in the typeset form as formerly used for the printed paper version. It is possible to download or print out the entire journal or individual parts only. The PDF files per issue of the journal are available as a directory on a database/ PDF server.

  • Searchable version

    Journals are accessible in a searchable form, including all bibliographic data as well as procedural and legal status data. Data are provided via an application/web server.

    Users have a choice of several search modes (beginner, expert, assisted) and may also carry out searches for procedural and legal status data.

    A search list is generated at the end of the search. Users may configure this list and select data fields and the number of results to be displayed.

    A display of current bibliographic data may be initiated from the result list for any type of IP right. Modifications on procedural or legal status data are shown below the bibliographic data in a history table. The display of the bibliographic data of trade marks and industrial designs includes the option to view the corresponding trade mark or design images on a separate screen, via a link. Users may download the bibliographic data of the current week for all types of IP rights in XML format from the display of bibliographic data page.

    For patents and utility models, a display can be initiated of the whole document from the bibliographic data. The respective document is made available from the facsimile archive of the DEPATIS patent information system of the GPTO. It is possible to download or print documents from the current publication week in one PDF document and in different resolutions. Documents from previous publication weeks may be downloaded or printed page by page. The full text data of the current publication week may also be downloaded in XML format, including the corresponding DTD.

Apart from searches within the data on individual types of IP rights, access is provided to the different IPR classifications (IPC, Nice, Vienna and Locarno) for enhanced indexing. Finally, help-pages and other information are provided for the user's convenience.