Research request
The search request is (English "search request") in a patent grant procedure at the German Patent and Trademark Office ( "DPMA") of possible application to the office to make this relevant to a patent application prior art identified.
overview
In order for a patent to be granted for an invention, a corresponding patent application must be submitted to the competent office
- First of all, the state of the art applicable to them is determined by an official search, and
- then the requirements for patenting are officially examined, also with regard to the previously researched state of the art.
In the procedure at the DPMA, the official search must be initiated by the search request and the official examination by the request for examination to be submitted at the same time or later . Both applications are chargeable.
In the legal sense, the request for research and the payment of fees are different processes. In jargon, however, one usually means both when one speaks of a research request. If the fee is not paid, the search request is deemed not to have been made.
Effect of the search request
In response to the search request, the examiner responsible for the application at the competent office will research the state of the art relevant to the patent application and inform the applicant of the result in writing in the form of a list of the publications considered relevant. In the proceedings before the DPMA and under the PCT, this list is largely uncommented. In the proceedings at the EPO, on the other hand, a so-called “extended search report” is drawn up in which the examiner, in addition to listing the material considered relevant, explains and justifies his views in more detail.
It can take a few weeks or even a few years, usually a few months, from the submission of the research request to receipt of the research result.
If the search request for a German patent application is filed at the same time as the application, the patent office is required (“should”) to complete the search within eight months and to inform the applicant of the result.
details
Procedure at the DPMA, legal basis
German procedural law allows the search request and the request for examination to be filed simultaneously with the filing of the German patent application or later, together or one after the other. If the request for examination is submitted without a previous search request, the latter is deemed to have been submitted.
The request for examination, i.e. indirectly also the search request, must be filed no later than seven years after the filing date of the patent application, otherwise the patent application is deemed to be withdrawn. Third parties can also submit the request for examination, but must then also pay the fee for this. The request for examination cannot be withdrawn.
The fee for the search request is 300 € (as of January 2019), for the later request for examination 150 € (as of January 2019), and if both are submitted at the same time, a total of 350 € (as of January 2019).
Procedure at the EPO
In procedural law at the EPO, the search is not specifically requested, as this is already included in the originally filed request for grant. But the fee due for the research must be paid initially. The exam can be requested at the same time.
The fee for the research is € 1,300 (as of January 2019).
PCT procedure
The procedural law under the PCT requires filing the search request at the same time as filing the international patent application and paying the fee due for this. In contrast, the application for international preliminary examination can be submitted a few months later, but does not have to be submitted.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ see § 43 PatG for the search request and § 44 PatG for the examination request
- ↑ see R. 17 (2) EPC
- ↑ see Art. 15 PCT and R. 16 in the Implementing Regulations for the PCT
