Patents - 3. Nature Of Patent

German Patent law provides for a term of protection of 20 years from the date of application, provided that the patentee pays yearly maintenance fees. The exclusive rights deriving from a patent can generally only be claimed by the patentee after the patent has been granted. The patent grant gives the patentee the basic right to exclusively use the invention within the territory of Germany (Section 9 Patent Act).

This includes the right to prohibit others from using the patent invention. Briefly speaking, third parties are therefore refrained from manufacturing, offering or distributing products which are subject matter of the patent, to use the patented product or to offer or distribute products which are obtained directly by methods subject to the patent (the exact rights are defined in Section 9 sentence 2 Patent Act). This also covers acts of importing of products for the purposes mentioned above.