German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
DEPATISnet provides fast and comfortable access to the
electronic DEPATIS document archive (German patent
information system) of the German Patent and Trade Mark
Office (DPMA).
DEPATISnet not only allow users to search in all
German patent documents since 1877, but also to search in
documents of many other patent offices and organisations
worldwide.
The specifically developed search software, tailored to meet the needs of a casual user or professional patent searcher, will make this vast pool of technical knowledge available to all types of patent searcher. DEPATISnet offers a German and an English user interface and a large variety of search options. It provides six different search modes, accommodating users with different levels of experience (Basic, Advanced, Expert, Ikofax and Family). The patent documents can be searched by various bibliographic data such as title, applicant or inventor. A full text search can be conducted within the complete documents of German (DE), European (EP), USA (US) publications and publications, published by WIPO (WO) which were published in German, English or French.
The data of the current German documents are available
via DEPATISnet on the respective publication day (usually
on Thursday).
Users can use DEPATISnet for:
• configuration and sorting of the result list
• many download options for the results and result lists
displayed
• German, European, US, CN, JP and KR documents and for documents of WIPO: full-text searches within the entire
document, where full text is available
• complex search queries using logical and numerical
operators and wildcards
• refined search in the search modes Advanced, Expert
and Ikofax to limit the number of results and narrow
down search results
• display and printing of documents at different quality
levels
• convenient navigation within documents and links
to individual subdocuments (title page, description,
claims and so on)
• link to the register data (INPADOC) of German and
foreign documents obtained from the EPO
Smart search
DEPATISnet now provides a "Smart search" function. The corresponding search field is located at the top right of the screen.
Smart search is an easy way to conduct searches for patents and utility models. You can enter publication numbers, names of owners and inventors as well as search terms in the search field.
Beginner's search
The Beginner's mode is suitable for simple queries using provided search fields. You will find the search criteria in a search interface with input fields where you can type in your search terms. For correct input of search terms, please refer to the Help pages.
In case you require information on terms used in the world of patents, please refer to the introduction on this subject.
Expert search
The Expert mode assists you in creating complex queries. In this mode, you may use all defined search criteria in a free query input field and combine terms to form long and complex queries using Boolean Operators. The applied syntax follows MIMOSA syntax. Buttons are provided for convenient construction of advanced search queries.
IKOFAX search
In this mode, experienced users can construct and run searches using IKOFAX syntax (internal query language of the DPMA). The IKOFAX mode allows to access data using the SEARCH command.
German Patent Classification (DEKLA)
Via the document number you can ascertain patent family members (also possible in any result list).
In DEPATISnet users can download up to 100 displayed search results in csv or xlsx format with the following information: title, application number, publication number, applicant names, representative names, IPC.The file inspection “All documents” panel view, can be downloaded in pdf format.
As additional services you may use the PIZ support or the patent family search
Via the "PIZ support" mode you can forward requests to pros at the German Patent Information Centres. You will receive the answer by e-mail/mail/fax.
Patent family search
This mode allows to ascertain documents related to a specific document (members of a patent family). You may initiate the search directly from the result list or from the family search mode
? any number of characters or no characters
! precisely one character
# one character or no characters
- Boolean operators, AND, OR and NOT, can be used in DEPATISnet to combine terms in the search query
- comparison operators: “=”, “>=”, “<=”, “within” to be used with a date-related field identifier to specify periods of time