A patent is an industrial property right that gives you, as the owner, the exclusive right to dispose of your invention. No one else may make use of the patented invention without your consent. For example, no one may manufacture, offer, market or import patented products or use patented processes without a license, except in exceptional cases regulated by law. This property right is generally valid for a period of up to 20 years.

Patents can be granted for inventions in all fields of technology that

• are new,
• are based on an inventive step and
• are industrially applicable.

Novelty: An invention is new if it is not part of the state of the art. The state of the art comprises all knowledge that was available to the public worldwide in every conceivable way before the application for the invention in question was filed. This may be the case through written or oral descriptions, use or exhibition. Written descriptions include, for example, books, journals and patents. An oral description is, for example, a presentation at a conference.

Information that you have published yourself also counts as prior art. As an inventor, you should therefore always ensure that you keep your invention secret before filing an application.

• Inventive step: Even if your invention is new worldwide, it does not automatically have to lead to a patent. Inventive step means that the innovation must be sufficiently different from the state of the art. Patent protection is not granted if it is an obvious and therefore minor innovation.
• Industrial applicability: Industrial applicability is given if the invention can be produced or used in any industrial field, including agriculture.
• Technical invention : A patent is only granted for technical inventions. The continuous development of science and technology is constantly redefining the areas for which patent protection can be obtained.

When you register your invention, you must disclose it clearly and completely in the application documents so that a person skilled in the art can easily carry it out. Subsequent additions to the technical information are not permitted.

On the other hand, patent protection is not possible for, among other things

• Discoveries (finding something existing that was not previously known, for example magnetism),
• scientific theories,
• mathematical methods,
• aesthetic creations (you can apply for design protection for shapes and colors),
• plans, rules and procedures for intellectual activities (such as building plans, patterns or teaching methods),
• business activities (such as organizational models or accounting systems),
• Reproduction of information (such as tables, forms or written arrangements),
• Computer programs as such (without technical reference),
• inventions whose exploitation would be contrary to morality or public order,
• the human body in the stages of its formation and development, including germ cells and the mere discovery of one of its components, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene,
• procedures for the surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body and diagnostic procedures,
• animal breeds and plant varieties as well as essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals and the plants and animals obtained thereby.

If you wish to apply for a patent for an invention at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, you must submit a comprehensive description of the invention that enables a person skilled in the art to understand and carry out your invention.