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Introduction Example

Entrepreneur A runs an innovative company that manufactures vacuum cleaners and has never had anything to do with patents. While conducting an internet search, an employee stumbled upon a document that appears to originate from a patent office and describes many technologies that are also used in Company A. A is concerned that he may be infringing on the patent. On the first page of the patent document, A finds the following information.

Patent documents are the central source of information for obtaining detailed information about patented inventions. They contain a technical description of the invention and also define the scope of legal protection. Patent documents are published by national patent offices, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or international patent offices, such as the European Patent Office (EPO), and are publicly available. The upper left-hand corner indicates which authority published the document.

The sample documents shown above are patent documents. The first document is from the German Patent and Trademark Office, and the second document is from the Austrian Patent Office.

Knowledge of the patent office that issued the patent publication is essential for the general public because, due to the principle of territoriality, patents are only valid in those countries whose patent offices have examined the invention and granted a patent. If you do not apply for a patent for a specific country, you will not receive patent protection in that country. This rule is known as the principle of territoriality.

A typical patent document is between 10 and 30 pages long and contains a comprehensive description of the invention as well as the patent claims, which define the scope of protection. The first page (the cover sheet) contains formal information such as the name of the patent holder, the inventor, the publishing patent office, and the date of application and patent grant. The cover sheet of the patent can also be used to reconstruct significant events in the life of the patent up to the date of grant.

The first page of a patent document is also known as the cover sheet and contains a variety of legal information directly relating to the invention. This information is also referred to as bibliographic data.

Although patent documents are typically published in the language of the respective patent office, numerical codes (known as INID codes) are used to make it easy to find specific information regardless of the language.

An important piece of information that can be found on the cover page of a patent specification is the so-called publication number. This is a code that uniquely identifies the patent document in question, i.e., each patent document has a publication number under which it can be uniquely identified, for example, in a patent database.

The publication number consists of three parts, namely an ISO 3166 country code that identifies the country or authority that made the publication (e.g., 2-letter codes for countries, with possible special codes for specific agencies). For example, the Austrian Patent Office uses the abbreviation “AT,” the German Patent Office uses the abbreviation “DE,” the European Patent Office uses the abbreviation “EP,” and the abbreviation “WO” is used for international patent applications.

The publication numbers of the two patent documents are shown below. The first document is from the German Patent Office (DE), the second document from the Austrian Patent Office (AT). The publication number is preceded by the INID code 10, which indicates, regardless of language, that this is a publication number.

At the end of the publication number is a document code consisting of letters such as “A” or “B” followed by a number. Although each country determines the assignment of these document codes itself, the codes “A1” and “A3” have become established for the publication of patent applications, and ‘B1’ for the publication of patent specifications. In older patent documents, “C” is often used for patent specifications. “A2,” and “A3” has typically been used for the publication of patent specifications. In older patent documents, “C” is also often used for patent specifications, while the letter ‘U’ or “Y” is commonly used for utility models. Below, we will look at a European patent. This can be recognized by the publication number, which begins with “EP,” followed by a number and the code “B1,” which indicates that the patent has already been granted.

Between the country code and the document code is a number assigned by the respective national offices. Typically, countries assign consecutive numbers. If, after the publication of a patent application, a patent is also granted and a patent specification is published, these usually receive the same number.

Prior to the patent specification “DE 10 2006 000 980 B4,” an application publication “DE 10 2006 000 980 A1” was also issued, i.e., the patent specification receives the number from its associated application publication. The Austrian Patent Office, which also published the application publication “AT 503 899 A1” on January 15, 2008, publishes applications with consecutive numbers. For example, the application publications “AT 503 897 A1” and “AT 503 898 A1” were also published on the same day, but these concerned completely different inventions.

The applicant or patent owner is the person who owns the application or patent. As long as the patent has not been granted, the person is referred to as the applicant. After the patent has been granted, the same person is then referred to as the patent owner (patentee, owner, proprietor).

The owner of the German patent in the first patent document was (at the time of grant) MAPA GmbH, based in Zeven, Germany. The applicant for the patent application described in the second patent document was MAM Babyartikel GmbH, based in Vienna. The applicant or owner is designated with the INID code 73.

It is also possible for several natural persons to jointly act as applicants or owners. Applicants or owners may change over time, e.g. when patents are sold.

The inventors are the persons who are the actual creators of the invention, i.e. who made or conceived the invention. Here, too, several persons may be named as inventors. Even if the inventor initially owns his invention himself, the owner of a patent and the inventor do not have to be identical. The inventor can assign his right to apply to a third party, for example to his employer. In many countries, it is also mandatory to name the inventor, i.e. the applicant must specify who the inventor is.

Several persons are named as inventors for the German patent in the first patent document. The INID code of the inventor is 72. No inventor is named for the Austrian patent application in the second patent document.

The representative is usually a lawyer or patent attorney who represents the applicant during the patent procedure. The representative acts on behalf of the applicant or owner, i.e., he or she has no (ownership) share in the patent.

Hauck, Patent and Law Attorneys from Hamburg, is listed as the representative for the German patent in the first patent document. The INID code of the representative is 74. No representative is listed for the Austrian patent application in the second patent document

The cover sheet also contains some calendar dates that show the timeline of the application: The filing date is the date on which the patent application was filed with the patent office. The publication date is the date on which the relevant patent specification was made available to the public. In the case of a patent specification, this is typically the date on which the patent was granted.

The first document states that the patent was filed on January 7, 2006. On July 12, 2007, the application publication “A1” was published. This document itself is the patent specification, i.e., it indicates that the patent has been granted. The document was published on July 17, 2014. The second document states that the application was filed on July 13, 2006. The document itself was published as an application publication on January 15, 2008. (The Austrian Patent Office always publishes on the 15th of each month).

In many cases, applications are filed as so-called subsequent applications to foreign applications. The term priority right or priority indicates that such an earlier application exists. The country, number, and date of the foreign application to which the priority right refers are usually specified.

No priority rights are claimed in either document. This is typical for initial applications, i.e., these applications were the first time the inventions were submitted (typically on the domestic market).

In addition to purely national property rights, there are also multinational property rights, such as international patent applications and European patents. The cover pages of these documents also contain a reference to the countries in which the property right is valid.

The property rights in the two documents only relate to one country each, so there is no information on this subject here.

The technical information is located at the bottom of the cover sheet of a patent. The title and a summary of the invention are presented here, supplemented by a drawing if this is necessary to explain the invention. This information serves as general technical information and helps to understand the patent at first glance. It is important to note that they do not define the scope of protection of the invention, but merely provide a concise description of the technical features.

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However, the patent document alone does not reveal whether the patent is still valid, whether the patent application is still pending, or whether the patent has already been granted. The first piece of information that can be gleaned from the document is the filing date. If this was more than 20 years ago, you can at least be sure that this patent no longer gives rise to any legal claims.

For the German patent “DE 10 2006 000 980 B4,” the register shows that the patent expired in 2019 due to non-payment of annual fees.

The Austrian application, published in document “AT 503 899 A1,” was filed on July 13, 2006. Even if a patent was granted, it will expire on July 13, 2026, at the latest, so that the use of the protected product can no longer be prohibited after this date with this patent.

However, whether a patent is still valid or whether a patent has been granted for the application can only be determined by consulting the relevant patent register or by inspecting the files at the patent office.

For the German patent “DE 10 2006 000 980 B4,” the register shows that the patent expired in 2019 due to non-payment of annual fees.

The Austrian patent register shows that a patent was granted for the patent application in the second document on July 15, 2008, which will still be valid in 2025.

Since patent documents do not change, all other information in the patent documents only provides information about the legal status on the respective publication date. The document only reveals who owned the patent at the time of publication. However, the owner may have changed over time. Changes made after publication are not included in the original patent document and are not retroactively noted in it. In such cases, the patent document is not amended or rewritten. However, if there are serious errors or significant changes in the patent document that already existed at the time of publication, the patent offices may issue a new patent document for correction.

Current information on a patent can be found in the patent register. The patent register is a public database that can be viewed by anyone interested. It is operated by the patent office and contains the current status information on individual patents. Only the patent register can be used to determine the current legal status of the patent.

A look at the Austrian patent register shows that the patent granted for the application in the second document still belongs to the applicant mentioned in the document. A representative was also registered for the patent.

However, the mere fact that a patent has been granted for a particular country does not mean that there is no identical or very similar patent application from the same owner in other countries. Research can be used to find out whether there are parallel protection rights in other countries based on the same initial application.

In fact, parallel to the patent specified in the second document, there are a number of property rights in Austria, Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan, Brazil, and at the European Patent Office.

What cannot be deduced from the cover page of the first page is the exact scope of protection of the patent, i.e., which technology or which specific actions are prohibited by the patent. Even if a summary, title, or drawing is included, these do not specifically define what is actually protected by the patent.

Technical content - Description and patent claims

The pages following the cover page describe the content structure of a patent specification in more detail. First, the prior art is almost always described. This section describes what already existed before the filing date and often also discusses the associated disadvantages.

The first document shows the prior art and describes its characteristics: "[0006] Teats, pacifiers, drinking spouts, and teething rings are primarily made of natural latex and silicone rubber, but also thermoplastic elastomers. Previous products have been manufactured without color additives because dyes could leach out of the products during use, with adverse consequences for infants or young children, which would not be permissible under applicable food regulations and product-specific requirements. ... [0012] Nevertheless, it would be desirable to make pacifiers, teats, drinking spouts, and teething rings available in colored versions, for example, to make it easier to distinguish between products or for aesthetic reasons. [0013] Based on this, the invention is based on the task of providing a colored teat, pacifier, drinking spout, or teething ring that does not release any colorants when used by infants or young children. ...

The actual invention, which is intended to solve precisely these problems, is then presented. The core of the inventive idea is described, followed by more detailed explanations or extensions.

The first document describes the solution in brief as follows: [0015] The inventive teat, pacifier, drinking spout or teething ring comprises, from the inside to the outside - a base body made of natural latex containing at least one color pigment, and - a transparent, colorless layer applied to the base body on the outside by dipping it in a latex and/or polymer solution.

This is followed by a description of the figures, in which the embodiments shown in the drawings are explained in more detail. Reference numerals are used to identify individual components in the drawing and link them to the textual description. The drawings themselves are usually found at the end of a patent specification. These illustrate a possible embodiment of the invention, but do not limit the scope of protection of the patent, i.e., the patent is not limited to objects that look like those described in the drawings.

The first document describes an embodiment of the invention as follows: [0036] According to Fig. 1a, a suction cup 1 has a nipple 2 which is connected via an expanding transition area 3 to a spout 4 with a flange 5 at the lower edge for attachment to the opening edge of a drinking bottle. The nipple has a drinking hole 6 and a ventilation hole 7. [0037] The teat 1 has a colored base body 8, which has a transparent outer layer 9 on the outside made of a latex and/or polymer solution containing no dye. Furthermore, the teat 1 has an inner layer 10, which is also made of a latex and/or polymer solution containing no dye. [0038] The teat can be manufactured in any color that is clearly visible from the outside through the outer layer 9 and the inner layer 10. Nevertheless, no color pigments can migrate to the outside or enter the food, as they are securely retained by the outer layer 9 and the inner layer 10. For this embodiment, reference is made to a drawing at the end of the document, which has the following appearance. Reference numerals 1-10 are used in both the drawing and the description, e.g., the base body 8 and the outer layer 9.

The passage that defines the scope of protection of the patent, i.e., that provides information on the conditions under which an object is protected by the patent, can be found in the patent claims. These are typically located between the description of the figures and the drawings and are introduced by “patent claims.” These are numbered paragraphs.

Patent claim 1 from the first patent document, for example, has the following form: An object infringes the patent if it has the properties or features described here. Patent claim 1 is followed by numerous other patent claims.

Patent claims can also change over time. For example, the applicant may amend the patent claims in order to resolve objections raised by the patent office during the application process. Typically, the patent claims in the granted version are restricted compared to the published application. Changes can also be made after the patent has been granted, either at the request of the owner or in the context of nullity proceedings if it becomes clear to the owner that the patent can only be defended in an amended form.

An amendment between the application publication and the patent specification can be seen, for example, in the patent shown in the second document.