How to file a German patent application (DPMA)

How to file with the DPMA

The application is filed in writing or electronically (§ 3 PatV). In practice that means one of four routes, according to the DPMA forms page: by post, by fax, in person, or online with DPMAdirektPro. Email does not create a valid filing.

• Online: DPMAdirektPro is free software from the DPMA. It packs the request and documents into a container signed with a qualified electronic signature, which currently needs a signature card. Online filing pays the lower fees. DPMAdirektWeb is for trade marks and designs only.
• Paper: use form P 2007, "Antrag auf Erteilung eines Patents", from the DPMA forms page. Paper filings pay 1.5 times the online filing and claims fees.

The filing date is the day the DPMA receives the applicant's name, the request for grant and something that on its face is a description (§ 35(1) PatG). Claims are not needed for a filing date, although you should file them at once. The abstract can follow within 15 months of the filing or priority date (§ 36 PatG), and so can the designation of the inventor (§ 37 PatG). The filing fee falls due on filing and must be paid within 3 months, or the application is deemed withdrawn (PatKostG § 6). The DPMA does not send an invoice.

A German first filing gives you the usual 12-month Paris Convention priority for filings abroad, and you can claim it for a later German application too (internal priority, § 40 PatG).

Language: German, with a translation deadline

The language of proceedings is German, but the filing date does not depend on it. Under § 35a PatG, an application filed wholly or partly in another language needs a German translation:

• English or French: within 12 months of filing, and no later than 15 months from an earlier priority date (§ 35a(2)).
• Any other language: within 3 months of filing (§ 35a(1)).

If the translation is late, the application is deemed withdrawn. Two things can bring the deadline forward. If you have filed a search or examination request, the examining section may ask for the translation early (§ 35a(3)). If you consent to public file inspection before 18 months, the consent only takes effect once the translation is in (§ 35a(4)). The 12-month rule does not apply to utility models, where every foreign-language filing gets 3 months (§ 4b GebrMG).

What the application must contain

§ 34(3) PatG lists five parts: the applicant's name, a request for grant that names the invention briefly and precisely, one or more claims (Patentansprüche), a description, and the drawings the claims or description refer to. The invention must be disclosed clearly and completely enough for a skilled person to carry it out (§ 34(4)), and one application may cover only one invention or a group of inventions linked by a single general inventive concept (§ 34(5)).

The Patentverordnung (PatV) sets the details. § 10 PatV asks the description to start with the title and then give the technical field, the known prior art with references, the problem, the invention as claimed, its advantages over the prior art and at least one way of carrying it out, with reference signs to the drawings. This is close to the order a European description follows.

The form rules are in § 6 PatV: A4 sheets, claims, description, drawings and abstract each starting on a new sheet, description pages numbered in Arabic numerals at the top centre, and 1.5 line spacing. One rule catches drafts written for other offices: line and paragraph numbering "should not be used" (§ 6(3) PatV). If you reuse a draft with [0001]-style paragraph numbers, remove them before filing in Germany.

Search request and examination request

The DPMA does nothing substantive on its own. Two separate requests drive the case:

• Rechercheantrag (§ 43 PatG): the DPMA searches the prior art and gives a preliminary view on patentability and on the formal requirements of § 34(3) to (5). Only the applicant can file it. It is optional, and it is useful as a cheap early opinion before you commit to filing abroad within the priority year.
• Prüfungsantrag (§ 44 PatG): starts substantive examination. The applicant or any third party may file it, up to 7 years from filing, and the examination fee must be paid within that period. A third party who requests examination does not become a party to it.

Examination includes its own search, so a search request filed after an examination request is treated as not made and its fee is refunded (§ 43(4)). If no examination request is filed within 7 years, the application is deemed withdrawn (§ 58(3) PatG). Annual fees run from year 3 regardless.

German patent office fees

DPMA fees are set by statute in the Patentkostengesetz (PatKostG), not by the office. These are the amounts in force on 25 October 2026, and they match the DPMA's own fee page.

Example: an online filing with 15 claims, a search request and then an examination request costs €590 in official fees (€40 + 5 × €20 + €300 + €150). Requesting examination straight away instead costs €490.

Annual fees (Jahresgebühren)

A Jahresgebühr is due for the 3rd and each later year, counted from the filing date (§ 17 PatG), for the application as well as the patent. Each fee falls due on the last day of the month of the filing anniversary (PatKostG § 3(2)). You have 2 months to pay without a surcharge, then up to the end of the 6th month with the €50 surcharge (PatKostG § 7(1)). Paying years 3 to 5 together when year 3 falls due costs €210 instead of €240. A declaration of willingness to license (Lizenzbereitschaftserklärung, § 23(1) PatG) halves every annual fee.

Keeping a German patent in force for the full 20 years (§ 16 PatG) costs €14,160 in annual fees.

Publication at 18 months, grant and opposition

The file becomes open to inspection 18 months after the filing or priority date, and the DPMA publishes the application as an Offenlegungsschrift (§ 31(2) and § 32 PatG). It is published earlier if you consent and have named the inventor. If examination finishes before 18 months, you can ask for the grant decision to be held until 15 months from filing or priority (§ 49(2) PatG).

The patent takes effect when the grant is published in the Patentblatt (§ 58(1) PatG). Anyone may oppose it within 9 months of that publication (§ 59(1) PatG). The term is 20 years from the day after filing (§ 16 PatG).

Applicants outside Germany need a representative

Under § 25(1) PatG, a person with no residence, seat or establishment in Germany can take part in DPMA proceedings, and assert rights under a German patent, only through an appointed Rechtsanwalt or Patentanwalt. The same rule applies to the search request (§ 43(2) PatG) and to utility models (§ 28 GebrMG). The representative's office counts as the place where the patent is located for jurisdiction purposes (§ 25(2)).

The Gebrauchsmuster: a faster alternative

A German utility model (Gebrauchsmuster) protects technical inventions like a patent but is registered without examination for novelty, inventive step or industrial application (§ 8(1) GebrMG). The DPMA checks only the formal requirements before registering it. The differences that matter:

• No protection for processes (§ 2 no. 3 GebrMG).
• A 6-month grace period: your own disclosure in the 6 months before filing does not count against novelty (§ 3(1) GebrMG). German patent law has no general grace period.
• A maximum term of 10 years (§ 23(1) GebrMG), with maintenance fees of €210 for years 4 to 6, €350 for years 7 and 8, and €530 for years 9 and 10.
• Filing costs €30 online or €40 on paper. An optional search (§ 7 GebrMG) costs €250.
• Validity is only tested if someone attacks it, in cancellation proceedings at the DPMA or in court.

Branching off (Abzweigung). If you have a German or European patent application for the same invention, you can file a utility model that takes the patent application's filing date and priority (§ 5 GebrMG). This is possible until 2 months after the end of the month in which the patent application is disposed of or any opposition ends, and no later than the end of the 10th year from the patent application's filing date. Branching off is how applicants get enforceable rights quickly while the patent is still in examination, or keep some protection after a patent application is refused.

German patent, European patent or Unitary Patent

If you need protection only in Germany, a German application is the cheapest route. If you need several European countries, a European patent application gives one search, one examination and one grant, and a Unitary Patent then covers the 18 participating EU states with a single annual renewal fee (EPO).

You do not have to choose only one. Since the Unified Patent Court opened on 1 June 2023, a German patent stays in force alongside a European patent or a Unitary Patent for the same invention. It loses effect only where the European patent has been opted out of the Unified Patent Court (Art. II § 8 IntPatÜbkG). A common pattern is a German first filing with an early search request, followed within the priority year by a European or PCT application. The European examination request is due within 6 months of the European search report being published (Rule 70(1) EPC), much sooner than the German 7 years.

More DPMA guides

• Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India

  37 CFR 1.84, the EPO rules that replaced Rule 46 EPC, and Indian rule 15, compared side by side.

• How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India

  Claim structure and worked examples, then the claim rules and fees at the USPTO, the EPO and the Indian Patent Office, side by side.

All guides, by patent office