Patent Information Center
The nationwide more than twenty patent information centers (PIZ) are German service institutions in matters of industrial property rights . They are recognized cooperation partners of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and members of the European PATLIB network.
As early as 1992, the German Patent Information Centers formed the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Patentinformationszentren e. V. “merged. Today the association operates under the name PIZnet.
activity
There is at least one patent information center in every federal state (with the exception of Brandenburg). Individual patent centers can look back on a long tradition. For example, the patent information center at Chemnitz University of Technology was founded in 1878. Its main task is to provide the public with comprehensive information on industrial property protection. In this way, patent information centers give everyone the opportunity to obtain information on industrial property rights close by. The centers show the way from the idea to the property right. In order to fulfill this task, they carry out patent research and patent monitoring. Furthermore, free initial consultations by patent attorneys, which are offered by the Chamber of Patent Attorneys and organized by the patent information centers, are included. Events, training courses and seminars on all aspects of industrial property protection are also offered.
According to Section 34 of the Patent Act, applications for property rights can also be submitted to patent information centers that are designated by the Federal Ministry of Justice and for consumer protection in the Federal Gazette. These are currently the patent information centers u. a. in Aachen, Bremen, Chemnitz, Dortmund, Dresden, Hamburg, Ilmenau, Kaiserslautern, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken and Stuttgart. European and international patent applications intended for the DPMA can also be submitted to these patent information centers. The patent information centers also act as so-called acceptance points. They only accept the registrations, document the date of receipt and forward the registrations to the DPMA. The date of receipt at the Patent Information Center is recognized as the filing date.
However, property rights not only safeguard applicants' rights, they are also a unique source of information that gives a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and the market activities of competitors. The compulsion to disclose the invention creates an unprecedented wealth of information that anyone can use. Because after 18 months, an invention is made accessible to the public via various databases.
With regard to these sources of information, the PIZ offer individual support for research, some of which is also possible online. They also offer fee-based contract research.
Customers are offered additional services to support optimal property rights management, such as patent valuation, patent exploitation and organization of property rights work in the company.
The main concern of the PIZ is therefore neutral support for companies, universities, research institutions and individual inventors in all matters of commercial legal protection, with confidentiality and secrecy guaranteed. In their regions, the PIZ sensitize the general public to patents, utility models, brands and designs and thus strengthen the innovative strength in business and science.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dpma.de/amt/kooperation/patentinformationszentren/index.html
- ↑ http://www.epo.org/searching/patlib/about.html
- ↑ http://www.piznet.de/
- ↑ http://www.bibliothek.tu-chemnitz.de/piz/chronik.html
- ↑ Schulte / Rudloff-Schäfer, PatG, 8th edition, § 34 marginal number 58
