National Patent Application

Procedure

Upon receipt of your instructions we sift the description of the invention and we will contact you first by telephone to clarify the details. It is also possible to make an appointment at our office to present your invention.

Frequently, we need further information which you can send to us by e-mail. Based on the information that you have provided we draft a patent application, including the patent claims, that we send to you for your perusal and approval.

Upon your approval we submit the patent application to the competent Patent Office. Upon our application for examination and the payment of the examination fee the Patent Office is examining whether the invention is new and inventive. If the Patent Office issues an office action we will repsort the office action and draft a response.

The patent is granted after about three years. We will send you the certificate and inform you in good time of any pending deadlines, in particular the periods for payment of maintenance fees.

What is a patent?

The patent serves to protect technical inventions. The holder of a patent has a limited monopoly of use for the patented invention for the maximum duration of 20 years. Inventions may refer to both products and processes. The prerequisite, however, is always that a "technical problem is solved with technical means".

Protection of objects, such as machines and their parts, arrangements of individual parts, electronic circuits, chemical substances or medicinal products, can be protected by product claims.

There are also process claims. These claims, for example, procedures for the production of a product, working methods, or the use of a product for a specific purpose. No third party may use the protected procedure in relevant country. Without the consent of the patent owner or the patent owner, third parties are prohibited from making, offering, placing on the market or introducing or owning the patented product.

Cost of patent application

The costs of a patent application are made up of the fees of the patent office and the fees of the lawyer. Our flat fee include the fees of the patent office as well as the attorney fees. The flat fee covers the attorney and official fees for drafting and filing the application, for answering office actions and for the grant of the patent.