DTS offers a „full ser­vice“ for nation­al or Euro­pean appli­ca­tions and coor­di­nates and mon­i­tors all nec­es­sary for­mal and legal steps. The com­pe­tent and effi­cient pros­e­cu­tion results in a cost effec­tive way for the client to pro­tect his inven­tions in Europe.

DTS is sen­si­tive to the spe­cif­ic fil­ing strat­e­gy of the client. DTS can offer a fast pros­e­cu­tion where an ear­ly pro­tec­tion is sought as well as a thor­ough pros­e­cu­tion tak­ing advan­tage of sev­er­al divi­sion­al appli­ca­tions cov­er­ing the dif­fer­ent aspects of a basic invention.

The costs for fil­ing an EPC-appli­ca­tion with claim­ing a pri­or­i­ty, des­ig­nat­ing all coun­tries and pay­ing the search and exam­i­na­tion fees are in aver­age appr. 3.500 EUR inclu­sive offi­cial fees and DTS fees. This applies in the case that a full descrip­tion, claims and fig­ures are pro­vid­ed (for instance when enter­ing the region­al phase of a PCT-appli­ca­tion after 31 months). DTS is pre­pared to offer frame­work agree­ments with a flat fee for pros­e­cu­tion from fil­ing until grant.

DTS-attor­neys teach on the sub­ject of the Euro­pean patent at the EPO as tutors of CEIPI for the train­ing of future Euro­pean patent attor­neys. Thus, the clients ben­e­fit from the undis­put­ed exper­tise of the DTS-attorneys.

The Swiss Patent (CH-Patent)

The Swiss patent is reg­is­tered with­out a time con­sum­ing sub­stan­tial exam­i­na­tion pro­ceed­ing – thus it can be lit­i­gat­ed ear­li­er. For Swiss com­pa­nies, the Swiss patent is the nat­ur­al option for a first appli­ca­tion before fil­ing international.

YOUR CONTACT PERSON:

The Ger­man Utility-Model

Sim­i­lar to the nation­al Ger­man Patent, the Ger­man Util­i­ty-Mod­el offers a strong pro­tec­tion for a com­pa­ra­ble small bud­get. The time of pro­tec­tion is lim­it­ed to 10 years. It is often called “pet­ty-patent”. The util­i­ty-mod­el is a so called “reg­is­tered ip-right”, i.e. the patent office does not car­ry out a sub­stan­tial exam­i­na­tion but rather checks on for­mal require­ments. Thus, the reg­is­tra­tion takes place quick­ly – usu­al­ly three to six months after fil­ing – and can then be lit­i­gat­ed. In a lot of con­stel­la­tions, the util­i­ty-mod­el is there­fore an ide­al com­ple­tion of a patent appli­ca­tion. Fur­ther, well known advan­tages of the util­i­ty mod­el are the grace peri­od of six months, the appli­cant-friend­ly def­i­n­i­tion of nov­el­ty, no need for des­ig­nat­ing an inven­tor, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to branch of dif­fer­ent util­i­ty-mod­els with dif­fer­ent sets of claims of one patent appli­ca­tion, low­er fees, tac­ti­cal advan­tages in lit­i­ga­tion pro­ceed­ings, etc.

Patent appli­ca­tions – whether euro­pean, inter­na­tion­al oder nation­al (US, JP, CH, etc.) – can claim pri­or­i­ty of a Ger­man util­i­ty-mod­el. An inter­est­ing option for the reg­is­tra­tion of a util­i­ty-mod­el is the branch­ing off from a Ger­man national‑, an euro­pean or an inter­na­tion­al patent appli­ca­tion until the grant of such an application.

Please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us in order to ask for more indi­vid­ual information:

patent@dts-law.com

T: +49-(0)89–219996‑0.