The German utility model (Gebrauchsmuster)

What a utility model protects

§ 1(1) GebrMG protects inventions that are new, involve an inventive step and are industrially applicable, which is the same set of tests as for a patent. The list of things that are not inventions also mirrors patent law: discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods, aesthetic creations, schemes and methods for mental acts, games and business, computer programs as such, and presentations of information (§ 1(2) and (3)). One exclusion is specific to utility models: biotechnological inventions are not protectable at all (§ 1(2) no. 5).

§ 2 then excludes plant and animal varieties and, most importantly, processes (Verfahren). A new manufacturing method, a method of operating a machine or a method of treatment cannot be a utility model. A machine, device, circuit, product or chemical substance can. If your invention is a process, you can often claim the apparatus that carries it out instead, but that is a different and usually narrower right.

Once registered, the utility model gives the owner the exclusive right to use the subject matter. Nobody else may make, offer, put on the market or use a product that is the subject of the utility model, or import or possess it for those purposes, and indirect infringement is covered too (§ 11). The owner has the same claims for injunction and damages as a patent owner (§ 24). Private non-commercial acts and experimental use are exempt (§ 12).

Novelty and the 6-month grace period

The prior art for a utility model is narrower than for a patent in two ways (§ 3(1) GebrMG):

• Grace period. A description or use in the 6 months before the filing or priority date does not count if it is based on the work of the applicant or their predecessor in title. Present the prototype at a trade fair, publish the paper, launch the product: you still have 6 months to file a utility model.
• Prior use abroad. Written descriptions count wherever they were published, but public use counts only if it happened in Germany. A product that was sold only in, say, Brazil, without any written description, does not destroy novelty of a German utility model.

The DPMA points out the consequence: if you have already published your invention, a patent is no longer possible because the invention is not new, but within six months of your own publication you can still file a utility model (DPMA). That is often the only rescue for a start-up that presented first and asked about patents later.

Filing and registration without examination

The application goes to the DPMA and contains the applicant's name, a request for registration naming the subject matter, one or more protection claims (Schutzansprüche), a description and any drawings referred to (§ 4(3)). The filing date is the day the name, the request and something that looks like a description arrive (§ 4a). A foreign-language application needs a German translation within 3 months of filing, or it is deemed withdrawn (§ 4b); note that this is shorter than the 12 months a German patent application filed in English gets. An applicant with no residence, seat or establishment in Germany must act through a German Rechtsanwalt or Patentanwalt (§ 28).

If the formal requirements are met, the DPMA orders registration. Novelty, inventive step and industrial application are not examined (§ 8(1)). The DPMA says a utility model can be entered in the register within a few weeks of the application, provided the documents comply and the fee has been paid on time (DPMA). Protection takes effect on registration.

Optional search. Anyone, including a competitor, can ask the DPMA to search the prior art for a utility model application or registration, for €250 (§ 7). The result comes without any guarantee of completeness and without an opinion on validity. Because the DPMA itself advises making sure your application meets the requirements by searching thoroughly (DPMA), most applicants search before filing rather than after.

Priority works as for patents: 12 months from an earlier German patent or utility model application (internal priority, § 6), foreign priority under the Paris Convention, and a 6-month exhibition priority for showings at exhibitions announced by the federal justice ministry (§ 6a).

Term and fees

Protection starts on the filing date and ends 10 years after the end of the month in which the filing date falls (§ 23(1)). There are no annual fees: maintenance fees are paid in three blocks, for years 4 to 6, years 7 and 8, and years 9 and 10 (§ 23(2)). All fees are set by statute in the Patentkostengesetz.

A utility model filed online and kept for the full 10 years costs €1,120 in official fees, or €1,370 with a DPMA search. The filing fee falls due on filing and must be paid within 3 months. A maintenance fee paid late, within the grace period, carries a €50 surcharge; if it is not paid in time the utility model lapses (§ 23(3)).

Branching off from a patent application (Abzweigung)

If you have already applied for a patent for the same invention with effect for Germany, you can file a utility model with a declaration that it takes the patent application's filing date; any priority claimed for the patent application carries over (§ 5(1) GebrMG). The earlier application can be a German application, a European application, or a PCT application designating Germany, and there must be at least one day between it and the utility model application (DPMA, Abzweigung).

• Deadline: until 2 months after the end of the month in which the patent application is disposed of (granted, refused or withdrawn) or any opposition ends, and in any case no later than the end of the 10th year from the patent application's filing date.
• Documents: the application documents must be identical to the earlier patent application, with a copy of it unless it was filed at the DPMA (§ 5(2)). You can add restricted registration documents, which is how you drop process claims that a utility model cannot have. A foreign-language copy needs a certified German translation unless the utility model documents already are that translation.
• Term: counted from the earlier patent application's filing date. Maintenance fees for periods that have already expired at registration are not charged.

Worked example (from the DPMA)

A patent application was filed on 14 March 2019. On 25 April 2025 the applicant files a utility model with a branch-off declaration, and the DPMA registers it on 22 May 2025. The filing fee was due on 25 April 2025 and had to be paid by 25 July 2025. Because the term runs from 14 March 2019, the first maintenance period (years 4 to 6) had already ended at registration and is not charged. Registration fell in the second period, so the €350 fee for years 7 and 8 was due on 31 May 2025, payable without surcharge until 31 July 2025. The €530 fee for years 9 and 10 falls due on 31 March 2027, and the utility model ends in March 2029.

That is the typical use: a European or German patent application has been in examination for years, a competitor launches a copy, and the applicant needs something it can enforce now. Until a patent is granted there is no claim to an injunction or damages; a branched-off utility model gives one within weeks, while the patent application continues.

Cancellation proceedings (Löschungsverfahren)

Because nobody examined it, a utility model is only as strong as its claims against the prior art. Anyone can request cancellation at the DPMA, without showing a legal interest, on three grounds: the subject matter is not protectable under §§ 1 to 3, it was already protected by an earlier patent or utility model application, or it goes beyond the application as filed (§ 15(1)). If only part is affected, the utility model is cancelled in part, which can take the form of amended claims (§ 15(3)).

• The request is filed in writing with the facts relied on (§ 16) and costs €300.
• The DPMA sends it to the owner, who has one month to object. If the owner does not object in time, the utility model is cancelled (§ 17(1)). Diarise this one: it is the most expensive deadline in the procedure to miss.
• Otherwise a utility model division of one lawyer and two technical examiners decides, with an oral hearing if a party asks for one. As in civil litigation, the loser generally bears the costs, including the other side's. Appeals go to the Federal Patent Court (DPMA).

Validity also comes up in infringement cases. The utility model gives no protection where anyone would be entitled to have it cancelled (§ 13(1)), so a defendant can argue invalidity directly before the infringement court, which may also stay the case while cancellation proceedings run (§ 19). Before you send a warning letter based on a utility model, get a search and an honest view on validity.

Utility model or patent: when to use which

A utility model is usually the right choice when:

• you need an enforceable German right quickly, for example against a copy at a trade fair, while a German or European patent application is still pending;
• you disclosed the invention less than 6 months ago and a patent is no longer possible;
• the product has a short commercial life and 10 years is plenty;
• the inventive step is modest but real and you would rather not spend years arguing it with an examiner.

It is the wrong tool for a process invention, a biotech invention, anything you need protected for more than 10 years, or protection outside Germany. For those, file a German patent application or a European patent application, which can lead to a Unitary Patent covering Germany and 17 other EU states. Many applicants do both: a patent application for the long term and a branched-off utility model when they need to act. France has a comparable 10-year right, the utility certificate, though without the grace period.

More DPMA guides

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• 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.

• How to file a German patent application (DPMA)

  Filing, the German translation deadline, search and examination requests, DPMA fees and the utility model.

• Types of patent searches, and which one you need

  Patentability, freedom-to-operate, invalidity and landscape searches compared by purpose, timing, scope and deliverable.

• Patentability search: how to check novelty before you file

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• Freedom-to-operate search in the US and Europe

  In-force claims only, legal status checks at the USPTO, EPO and UPC, FTO opinions after Halo, and design-arounds.

• Invalidity search: prior art to challenge a patent

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• Patent landscape analysis, step by step

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• Google Patents search guide

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• The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), explained

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• Patent search Boolean operators and search strings

  Boolean, proximity and truncation syntax compared across Patent Public Search, Espacenet, Google Patents and The Lens, with semantic search for contrast.

• The PCT application: timeline, fees and national phase

  The international phase month by month, receiving Office and ISA fees in CHF, USD and EUR, national phase deadlines by office, and a deadline calculator.

• How much does a patent cost?

  USPTO fees by entity size from filing to the last maintenance fee, what drives professional fees, EPO fees, and an estimator.

• How long does a patent last?

  US utility and design terms, patent term adjustment and extension, terminal disclaimers, maintenance fee deadlines, Europe and India, with an expiry estimator.

• Can AI write a patent application?

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All guides, by patent office