DPMAObservations & Oppositions builder
Third-party prior-art notice
Section 43(3) PatGHinweis zum Stand der Technik
A free notice that puts prior art in front of the DPMA examiner of a pending German application, or the patent division during an opposition. It can be anonymous. The office must consider it, and you get nothing back.
At a glance
Before the examiner decides
No official fee: the notice is free (checked 22 Sep 2026)
- Who can file
- Anyone. No interest or standing is required.
- Deadline
- None in the statute. Useful only until the examiner settles the case.
- Official fee
- None. The notice has no entry in the PatKostG fee schedule.
- Language
- German (Section 126 PatG). Foreign passages relied on need a German translation.
- Anonymous
- Yes. The anonymous route is post or fax only, and nothing in the papers may identify the sender.
- Representation
- Not required: the notice-giver takes no part in the proceedings. This is a reading of Section 25 PatG, not an official statement.
- How it is filed
- Post or fax (+49 89 2195-2221). DPMAdirektPro needs a qualified signature and is undocumented for non-parties. Never email.
- Party status
- None. No acknowledgement, no reply and no outcome notice; only DPMAregister shows what happened.
What it is
Third-party prior-art notice, in brief
Anyone can send the DPMA prior art against a pending German application under Section 43(3) PatG, and a non-party can do the same during an opposition (Section 59(5) PatG). The notice may explain relevance and argue briefly. The office must take it into account (BPatG 1 W (pat) 12/22).
The submitter gets no party status, no reply, no decision and no appeal. There is no fee and no statutory deadline, but a notice that arrives after the examiner has settled the case is not looked at. It is not a small opposition and is not drafted as one.
Grounds it can carry
- Lack of noveltySection 3 PatG
- Lack of inventive stepSection 4 PatG
- Unclear claim, before grant onlyNot a Section 21 or 22 PatG ground
Use it when
- A German application is pending and examination or a Section 43 search is running.
- An opposition is pending, you are not a party, and the patent division should see more art.
- You want to act free and optionally unseen, and accept that nothing comes back.
Choose another route when
- The target is a European application or a European patent. Third-party observations
- The application sits unexamined and you want it examined now. Third-party examination request
- You need party status, a hearing or an appeal, or your best evidence is a witness-only prior use. Opposition
How IPtorch builds it
From search to filing, minus the signature.
The invalidity search runs on into this filing when it ends, with no second click. Three model families take turns, so a draft is never checked by the model that wrote it.
- 1SearchClaims split into limitations, thousands of candidates screened, at least 50 references read in full.Gemini models read and check
- 2Claim mapA verbatim quotation and its location behind every limitation.Every cell checkable
- 3DraftWrites the papers in the office's format and language.Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic)
- 4ReviewChecks each citation against its document and builds the forms.Sol 6 (OpenAI)
- 5AdjudicateHigh strength: a third family rules on every objection.Gemini 3.1 Pro (Google)
- 6FolderUnsigned PDFs, ready for a professional to review, sign and file.Nothing is filed
What the builder does for this filing
- It starts from an invalidity search with at least 50 references read in full and re-qualifies each reference under Section 3 PatG before citing it.
- It maps each pinpointed passage to a feature of the claim set now pending, not the claims as filed, and writes a short German notice with the most important teaching first.
- It checks that the notice stays a notice: no request, no opposition headings, no promise of participation, and no extra points that only show the applicant how to amend.
- On the anonymous route it checks that no page identifies the submitter, and nothing is filed.
In the folder
- Prior-art noticeGerman, pinpointed, claim by claim against features, no request
- Copies of every cited documentNumbered D1, D2, each with its date of public availability
- German translations of passages relied onLabelled machine translations printed beside the original text
- Exhibit cover sheetsThe file number on every sheet
- Form A 9520 dataNamed natural persons only: the Russia sanctions declaration
Builder strength
You choose how hard it is checked.
You pay for the tokens the sessions use, at the models' list prices plus a 30% fee, not for the time allowed. How pricing works
Low
- Opus 5.5 drafts the submission
- Sol 6 builds and checks the final forms
Medium
- Opus 5.5 drafts the submission
- Sol 6 reviews and rebuilds the content
- Opus 5.5 builds the filing folder
- Sol 6 checks the form
High
- Opus 5.5 drafts the submission
- Sol 6 runs a deep prior-art search
- Opus 5.5 rebuilds the submission against the evidence
- Sol 6 attacks it as an adversarial examiner
- Gemini 3.1 Pro adjudicates the objections
- Opus 5.5 applies the fixes and builds the filing folder
- Scripted checks of the filing folder
- Sol 6 audits the whole folder
- Convergence gate
If the gate fails, one repair round: opus 5.5 repairs what the gate found, sol 6 audits the repair, convergence gate, again.
What stays with you
You review, sign and file.
- Approve, with the client, disclosing this art now and the named or anonymous route.
- Named route: sign in ink, or with a German qualified electronic signature.
- Anonymous route: confirm the fax header, PDF metadata and envelope do not identify you.
- Send by post or fax, keep the transmission report, and watch DPMAregister.
Where these go wrong
What the builder guards against.
- Arriving after the examiner has settled the case. A late notice is not looked at, so check DPMAregister on the day you send.
- Listing publication numbers with no pinpointed passages. A busy examiner reads between other files and will not dig for the teaching.
Start with the evidence.
Upload the patent or enter its number. The invalidity search charts every claim, and the builder takes it from there.
Start an invalidity searchFacts checked against the office's rules on 22 September 2026. IPtorch is not a law firm and this page is not legal advice. The builder's output is unsigned work product for a registered professional to review, sign and file; nothing is filed and no fee is paid for you. Confirm current requirements, fees and deadlines with the receiving office.