National Law relating to EPC, II. Filing of European patent applications, Germany
II. Filing of European patent applications
| Contracting state | Germany |
|---|---|
1Applicant can choose between EPO and national authorities (subject to section 2) |
Yes Art. II § 4(1) LIPC |
2Applications which must be filed with national authorities |
Applications which may contain a state secret Art. II § 4(2) LIPC |
3Languages in which European patent applications must or may be filed with national authorities |
All the languages pursuant to Art. 14(2) EPC |
4Official language(s) |
German |
5Special features |
Applications as in section 1 may be filed at the EPO, with the DPMA and its patent information centres in the following towns: Aachen, Chemnitz, Dresden, Hamburg, Ilmenau, Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken and Stuttgart. BGBl. 1999 I 648, 2193 Bl.f.PMZ 1999, 169, 325 In the case of applications as in section 2, the applicant must indicate in an annex that the application may, in the view of the applicant, contain a state secret. Applications may also be filed by facsimile.* Applications may also be filed electronically using the DPMA's free software DPMAdirekt or the DE module (developed for German patent applications) of the EPO's epoline® software (see § 3(1), (4) OELDDPMA). Electronic filings can be submitted online or on electronic data carriers. Documents filed electronically must bear a qualified electronic signature within the meaning of Article 3(12) of Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257 of 28.8.2014, p. 73), or an advanced electronic signature within the meaning ofArticle 3(11) of that Regulation issued by an international organisation operating in the field of industrial property and processable by the DPMA (§ 3(3) OELDDPMA). More details about the conditions for processing electronic documents (especially the technical requirements, electronic data carriers accepted, data formats and electronic signatures) are given on the DPMA website: www.dpma.de (§§ 3(2) and 4 OELDDPMA). |
* See decision of the President of the EPO: OJ EPO 2019, A18.