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N. 32, March - April 2007
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 | IP & RTD: Articles
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Internet – Information Services of the German Patent and
Trademark Office
Mr Hubert Rothe
Head of Division Information Services for the Public
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The distribution of information on intellectual property rights has
always been one of the key functions of a patent office. In accordance with the
“contract theory” upon which patenting is based today, the
applicant is granted the protection right by the State on the condition that
the product of innovation is announced to the public and, therefore, to the
competition. The aim of the patent is to further the economy in two ways:
firstly, by rewarding the patent holders for their innovation, and, secondly,
by making this advance public to strengthen the economy, even if other methods
are also used.
Consequently, patent offices must focus their attention on their
information services if they wish to steer the patent toward the achievement of
this second aim.
It is well known that, in practice, information on protection rights
is employed for many different purposes, such as:
- determination of the state of the art before new R&D
projects start,
- prevention of protection right infringement,
- surveillance of competitors’ actions,
- determination of potential cooperation partners including
licensors and/or licensees,
- preparation of opposition, protest and invalidity proceedings,
- etc.
More importantly, information on protection rights has another
function. It can raise the public’s overall awareness for industrial
property protection, especially if it is edited and provided in a user friendly
way. Since the introduction of gratuitous patent databases on the internet,
many people, especially people from small and medium enterprises (SME), have
had their first contact with patent information via these databases.
Considering that, in comparison to large-scale industry, SMEs tend to apply for
fewer patents, the effect of this awareness raising is of considerable
importance. In the future, protection right databases, generally accessible to
all, will continue to perform this important and additional function.
The German Patent and Trademark office (DPMA) accomplishes its
information function through the following internet services:
When the DPMA decided to provide people with gratuitous access to
its internal patent information system DEPATIS via the internet, a special focus was put
inter alia on the function of patent information, as was mentioned above.
DEPATIS had been developed as a tool for
the office’s patent examiners.
Since 2001, the public has had access to entire archive of the
DEPATIS documents (about 38 million
documents) via the internet service DEPATISnet. Apart from the German user interface
there is also an English one available. Users have access to the patent
documents that have been published since the year 1877 (including those of the
former German Democratic Republic), to the documents of the European Patent
Office and to those of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Almost all the documents that have been published since 1920 in the United
Kingdom, France, Austria and Switzerland and the USA (since 1790), as well as
many documents from other states, are available. Documents from Japan and Korea
are available as English abstracts.
The documents are arranged according to the International Patent
Classification (IPC)
and their publication numbers, as well as in a varying scale according to
further bibliographic data (title, applicant, application date, publication
date, etc.). German documents that have been published since 1978 can also be
searched as text in full.
Different user interfaces are available to conduct the search. These
are directed at the different user groups. In addition to a beginners’
mode, there is also an expert mode available which allows complex queries with
Boolean operators.
According to the meaning of the International
Patent Classification (IPC), during the patent search the DPMA
provides the IPC-text in German, English and French, as well as with different
display options. The users can have just one language, two or even all three
language versions displayed synoptically. In addition to the current
classification version, old versions and revisions that are not yet in force
are also available.
The laws for patents, utility models, trade marks and designs
provide for the official publication of the DPMA at certain times during the different protection
right proceedings. Since 2004, the DPMA
has accomplished these publication tasks exclusively by internet. The
publication platform DPMpublikationen has
been created for this purpose. As with DEPATISnet, there is an English user interface
available. Its use is free of charge.
The weekly editions of the Patent and the Trademark Journal, as well
as the Designs Gazette, which is published twice a month, can be downloaded as
PDF documents via this platform.
DPMApublikationen offers also a
comfortable way to search, especially for searches concerning the legal status
of protection rights in force in Germany. The data correspond in scope and
actuality to the three published journals.
Data on patents (including EPO-patents pending in Germany and their
respective international application according to the PCT) are available
starting with the year 1986. Data on designs is available starting with the
year 1988. In the area of trade marks, it is possible to search for all German
trade marks still in force as well as for Community trade marks. Similar to
DEPATISnet there is also a mode for
beginners and one for experts.
On a medium term basis, there are plans to include the registered
Community designs, as well as the international registered trade marks with
protective effect in Germany, in the database.
Part of DPMApublikationen forms
the delivery service
DPMAkurier. Users registering at the
DPMAkurier can sign up to electronically
receive parts or complete editions of the patent, trade marks and/or the design
journal. Furthermore, they can deposit file numbers of protection rights and
will be informed via e-mail if there are changes in the corresponding legal
status.
This service offers free, daily access to the official registries of
protection rights (patent, trade mark and design registry) via the internet.
Data on the legal status are demanded primarily via file number. Simple patent
monitoring is also possible by using IPC symbols. A search for trade mark texts
is also possible.
In its development of information services, the DPMA aims to provide
the economy and science with up-to-date information, free of charge, in the
form of a sound governmental infrastructure. But the DPMA is aware that more
sophisticated information offered by commercial providers is of significant
importance for the economy, especially for professional users. The DPMA does
not intend to deter commercial offers by developing its services.
The DPMA offers the services
DPMAdatenabgabe und
DEPATISconnect especially for the target
group of commercial providers of patent information service, but also for
professional users of patent information. Both services require the conclusion
of a user contract and the payment of a lump sum (marginal costs). By using
DPMAdatenangabe, the raw data on new
publications for protection rights can be downloaded. Through the web service
DEPATISconnect, German patent documents
can be obtained ‘on the fly’ from the
DEPATIS archive via an XML-interface
Soon, there will be a new web service available, called
REGISTERconnect. After registering, a user
can send single file numbers to an XML-interface and will then receive the up
to date legal status data for free. The service is set to begin soon with data
on trade marks and designs. The integration of the data on patents and utility
models is being prepared.
Support for general questions, especially questions about the
application of protection rights inland and about the proceedings, can be found
on the general
DPMA-website. In view of the constantly increasing
significance of the Common Market, the protection also becomes more important
in the other EU member states. To provide a clear means of information on the
different procedures for obtaining protection abroad, especially for SMEs, the
website innovaccess.eu has been developed on a
European level and with the participation of the DPMA. The website provides
this information in a unified and comprehensible way. Furthermore, it contains
a lot of other information on the patent search, exploitation of patents and
strategies for patenting.
The DPMA also intends to develop its information services in the
future according to the above-mentioned aims, paying special attention to the
necessities of SMEs and the research area.
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