Our Services — To keep you well informed at all times
Our customer service is your competent and reliable partner providing you around the clock with “help to help yourself”.
We offer valuable assistance for preparing the filing procedure for all IP rights and thus make an essential contribution to ensuring the quality of your applications. In addition, we provide services for conducting IP searches and monitoring competitors. We make our IP data available to private information providers and grant easy automated access to our databases (DPMAconnectPlus).
You can make use of the following services:
You can contact the staff of our Central Customer Care and Services by telephone at +49 89 2195 - 1000, by e-mail at info@dpma.de and by post. You will not only receive general information but also advice on the correct way to file an IP application and answers to questions on the course of procedures concerning filed applications.
Online applications 2022
Design applications
National patent applications
National trade mark applications
National utility model applications
Customer enquiries in 2022
We provided information and assistance over 56,000 times in 2022:
Customer contacts by communication channel in 2022
* Besucherinnen und Besucher in den Auskunftsstellen und Recherchesälen im DPMA und an unseren Messeständen
Searches can be carried out online any time via our DPMAregister and DEPATISnet databases. You can also take a look at our case files online using our DPMAregister service. For search support, please contact us by telephone or e-mail.
Our search rooms in Munich and Berlin, which were temporarily closed during the pandemic, have been re-opened for visitors since 1 June 2022. Prior to your visit, it is usually wise to clarify your concerns by telephone. Please use our central ways to contact us.
In cooperation with the Chamber of Patent Attorneys, free initial consultations for inventors are performed by patent attorneys and offered at various institutions in many towns across Germany. Since 1 July 2022, these consultations have taken place in the rooms of the DPMA in Munich and in Berlin, as was customary in the past. Experienced patent attorneys will advise you on your application. If you have any questions about non-technical IP rights, lawyers are also available to help you. The Central Customer Care and Services will be pleased to arrange a suitable appointment for you.
For a general introduction to industrial property protection or, specifically, to searches in our databases, we regularly offer various workshops and seminars. The training offered is particularly aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition to face-to-face workshops and seminars we have several new digital events on offer. We were able to hold numerous events for many target groups at the proven high-quality level. The response was very positive, as interested parties from all over Germany were able to attend these seminars and workshops without having to invest a great deal of time and effort. In German-speaking foreign countries, the workshops and seminars offered by the DPMA are also increasingly noticed and see a rising number of participants.
For our workshops and seminars, please refer to our website (in German).
We provide information using different channels and various output formats in order to inform the public about the services of the DPMA. This information is for the most part available in two languages: German and English. Our services include comprehensive webpages, concise information leaflets as well as brochures containing information on patents, utility models, trade marks and designs, searches, electronic services and our annual report. Many brochures are available both online and as a print version. Our annual report is not only available in a print version and in PDF format, but also as an innovative digital version. The digital version offers a high level of reading comfort on both desktop and mobile devices and includes additional features and information which go beyond the print version.
You can also find us on the social media channels. Since 2022, you have been able to get to know the DPMA via LinkedIn. On this channel, you will receive current information about our office and interesting brief news on IP protection. Or follow us on YouTube! On our channel you will find tutorials and valuable background information on IP rights, searches and events. Feel free to drop by, it is worth it!
In addition to our usual news — announcements, important notices and notices of the President — and the classical information on our IP rights, we also publish specific information on IP protection and interesting facts from research and technology. For this purpose, we publish various newsletters and special publications, such as "Inventors' Activities", the series of publications "DPMAinformativ" dealing with special topics for patent information and, last but not least, our monthly gazette "Blatt für Patent-, Muster- und Zeichenwesen" (BlPMZ). The gazette is devoted to legal matters and above all to selected decisions of the courts and communications on representation. On our website, you can access these free publications, but also the current issue of BlPMZ, which is published in cooperation with Carl Heymanns Verlag. The monthly issue is free of charge; the annual subscription is subject to a charge.
Our two databases, DPMAregister and DEPATISnet, continue to be accessible publicly and free of charge on our website. Users are enabled to carry out free searches on patents, utility models, trade marks and designs. You can use DPMAregister to consult the register of legal and procedural status information of the DPMA; DEPATISnet gives you an overview of the global state of the art. This year we made the interface of both services even clearer and introduced a new search mode. You can use our DPMAkurier alert service to monitor IP rights and will receive the results in automated e-mails. The DPMAconnectPlus service offers you automated online access to all official register and publication data from DPMAregister and the opportunity to download patent and utility model documents from the DEPATIS document archive.
Our services are supplemented by a network of 18 patent information centres (PIZ) all across Germany. The patent information centres are recognised cooperation partners of the DPMA focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises, members of universities and research institutions as well as independent inventors. This way, they demonstrate their importance as an all-round service provider in the field of IP protection. If you would like to know if there is a patent information centre near you or which further information and services are provided by the patent information centres, please refer to www.piznet.de (in German). For more information about our cooperation with the patent information centres, please refer to the chapter “National cooperation partners”.
Last year finally we were able to present the DPMA once again as modern service provider and federal centre of expertise for intellectual property at various trade fairs and events. The focus of our trade fair presence is to raise public awareness of industrial property rights and to provide IP information to the public. The great demand for information in this field is shown by the high number of people visiting our stand who frequently raise questions about the importance of intellectual property, various IP procedures and search options, but also about ways to combat trade mark and product piracy.
Our trade fair calendar for 2023 is available at www.dpma.de/dpma/veranstaltungen/messen/index.html (in German).
We look forward to seeing you at our stand and talking to you face-to-face!
Several years ago, we introduced a central complaints management at the DPMA. We accept your general written complaints, analyse your requests and respond in close cooperation with the division involved. The analysis keeps on revealing potential for improvement, which is then discussed and, if applicable, implemented. The share of complaints in our customer contacts is very low and we are very pleased about that.
However, if you have not been entirely satisfied with the services of the DPMA, please write to us and explain your request. You can contact us by e-mail at info@dpma.de or by post.
Appeals, that is formal legal remedies, are different. They are subject to the rules and procedures of the respective IP rights.
Overview News from the IT services
Along with a number of small improvements, we have added additional features to DPMAdirektPro. Since July 2022, it has been possible to submit sequence listings pursuant to the new international standard ST.26 (in this respect, see article here). In addition, we have created the possibility to digitally send the DPMA subsequent submissions concerning supplementary protection certificates. This is a first step towards the full integration of the last IP right not yet offered in DPMAdirektPro. At the beginning of the year, DPMAdirektWeb was affected by the Log4j vulnerability, which made noise all over the world. Thanks to the fast response of our development departments, potential risks were eliminated very quickly and professionally. Last year, we improved DPMAdirektWeb in technological terms too. However, most changes were backend and are thus hardly visible for users. In May 2022, we were able to fulfil a very frequent customer request: SEPA mandates have since been operational in DPMAdirektWeb. This allows our customers to make payments relating to a trade mark or design application not only by transfer but also by SEPA direct debit.
In addition to the improvements to our own digital communication channels, we have been able to offer our customers another digital filing option since July 2022. Users can now also use ePCT, the system provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to make PCT applications and subsequent filings in the PCT procedure with Germany as the filing country. For further details on the ePCT procedure and background information on the PCT system, please see the “Patents” chapter.
In the 2021 Annual Report, we reported on our plan to make English translations of Asian patent literature available for patent search.
The goal of this measure is to translate all Chinese-language, Japanese-language and Korean-language patent literature available as original source in the document archive of DEPATIS or at the respective offices into English by means of an AI-based software in order to facilitate access to patent literature in these languages. The IT solution is based on a translation software WIPO has developed and provided to the DPMA.
In the course of 2022, we were able to continue this measure according to schedule, so the translation process was almost completed at the end of the year. Since the end of January 2023, all available data have been translated. Moreover, we promptly and continuously translate all new documents.
Since March 2021, almost 70 million documents have been translated: 39 million Chinese documents, 25 million Japanese documents and 6.5 million Korean documents.
These facsimile documents account for a total data volume of approximately 850 million pages.
In 2022, these translations were available only to the examiners of the DPMA in the internal DEPATIS system. Since March 2023, they have also been publicly available via DEPATISnet.
Both WIPO and the DPMA keep improving the software used for the translation. Furthermore, we intend to add other languages to the translation process and do new translations of already translated documents when an improved version of the translation software is available. Thus, we can continuously improve the quality of the translations.
Recently, the option to do what is referred to as a smart search has been implemented in DPMAregister. Smart search offers you a simple, easy-to-use way to search all four types of IP rights kept in DPMAregister by making just one entry. The relevant search field is in the top right corner of the DPMAregister homepage. After submitting a search term, all IP rights are searched. Accepted submissions in the search field are the file number, publication number, title (including the trade mark name), owner/proprietor or inventor. The results are then displayed separately in several tabs for patents, trade marks and designs, with the Patents tab displaying both patents and utility models. By clicking on the respective tab, you can go to the corresponding result list.
The “Trade marks” section of DPMAregister now offers the possibility of an image similarity search. Select “Image” in the “Trade marks” menu to upload an image and select additional search criteria such as the class or class of figurative elements. You can devise a search strategy by defining the concept, shape, colour and a combination of these parameters. The search will show a maximum of 50 results.
The search uses WIPO’s AI-based image search tool for trade marks. The DPMA does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and usability of the search results.
Overview Electronic services
The following e-services are available to our customers:
- Online search in the bibliographic data as well as in the legal and procedural status data
- You can produce an uncertified excerpt from the register yourself
- You can inspect the various parts of a patent case file online
- You can choose between three different search modes: basic, advanced or expert
- NEW: new layout and context help
- NEW: hit list configuration extended (tables or matrix view for all IP rights, gallery for trademarks and designs)
- NEW: Search link and search form can be saved
- NEW: up to 100 search queries can be saved in the history can be saved
- NEW: Image similarity search for trademarks
- NEW: Smart search (search field in header and at www.dpma.de
- Document archive with clearly more than 100 million data records from about 100 countries; you will receive almost 60% of these data records directly as PDF
- You can conduct online searches for prior art published in patent literature from all over the world
- NEW: Hit list configuration extended (tables or matrix view)
- NEW: improved document display and context help
- NEW: 1st drawing page can be displayed in hit list
- NEW: Smart search (search field in header and at www.dpma.de)
DPMAdirektPro
- Legally valid online filing of applications for all IP rights
- You need a special software, which we provide to you free of charge, as well as a qualified signature card
- You can register for the electronic document mailing service
- NEW: PCT filings via ePCT
- NEW: Filing of sequence listings pursuant to international standard ST.26
- NEW: Subsequent submissions concerning supplementary protection certificates
DPMAdirektWeb
- Legally valid online filing of applications for trade marks and designs as well as international registration of marks
- Contrary to DPMAdirektPro, no signature card or special software is required
- NEW: SEPA direct debit for trademark and design applications
- Legal status monitoring of certain IP rights
- You can subscribe to receive IP gazettes/journals by e-mail
- You can submit combinations of applicant/inventor/owner as well as of classification symbols
- NEW: New user interface
- NEW: No limitation on the number of monitoring
- Establishment of an interface, which provides automated access to all official register and publication data from DPMAregister
- You can download patent and utility model documents from the DEPATIS document archive through an interface
- Facsimile documents of DE, DD, EP and WO documents as well as optionally the corresponding bibliographic data
- We provide you weekly with the current data and documents of the German IP rights in the form of data packages
Detailed information on our IT developments and e-services is available on our website.
E-filing of IP applications and
Search