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DPMA Germany (DE) — national
Layer national
Jurisdiction DE (WIPO ST.3: DE)
Issuing body Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (German Patent and Trade Mark Office)
Rights administered patent, utility_model, trademark, design, copyright (registers; copyright is largely automatic in DE)
Working languages German (primary); English (partial — some service pages, fee schedules)
Connector status planned (BYOK) — DPMAconnectPlus REST permits self-hosted access by the contracting party; statutes already shipped
Last verified 2026-05-18
Manifest entry coverage/sources.yaml DE/DPMA/Statutes (statutes only — patent_client_agents.dpma_statutes). Live-register manifest rows pending build of patent_client_agents.dpma_register.

Detail surveys:

Higher layers covering this office transitively:

  • EPO INPADOC (via regional/epo.md) — DE patent biblio + family; this is the recommended substitute for DPMA patent register data.
  • EUIPO (via regional/euipo.md) — only for EU-level marks (EUTMs designating DE); pure DE national TMs are NOT covered.
  • WIPO Madrid / Hague — Madrid IRs designating DE / Hague IRs designating DE; national-only filings are NOT covered.

Rating: 🟡 Yellow — BYOK

DPMAconnectPlus REST permits per-user self-hosted access — EUR 200 one-time Datenempfänger contract, fixed-IP Basic-auth credentials, no German residency required, EU-SCC auto-attached for non-EU recipients (§8). Prior red_contract reading misread §3.2 — the clause prohibits rebroadcasting data records (zero-infra proxy is barred), NOT self-hosted BYOK by the contracting party. Synopsis update + BACKLOG entry queued 2026-05-18. Statutes corpus already shipped separately. Jump to access details → View on the atlas →

§1 Mission

DPMA is the largest national IP office in Europe and the home office for the Bundespatentgericht (BPatG) and the Unified Patent Court's Munich Central Division (mechanical engineering). Germany is strategic for any European IP work — but the German federal data-access policy treats register data as a paid product with strict redistribution terms.

For agents working on German patents, EPO OPS via INPADOC substitutes for biblio/family at the regional layer. National-only filings at the TM and design level — and German utility models (Gebrauchsmuster), a distinctive German right type not in EP — remain DPMA-exclusive, accessible via the DPMAconnectPlus REST API on a per-user BYOK basis: each user signs their own Datenempfänger contract (EUR 200 one-time), registers a fixed IP, and runs patent-client-agents-mcp locally with their own credentials. The hosted demo at mcp.patentclient.com does not carry DPMA credentials by design — the §3.2 prohibition on rebroadcasting data records forecloses zero-infra proxy.

§2 What's unique here

  • German utility models (Gebrauchsmuster, GebrMG) — a registered right distinct from patents; not covered by EP filings; only path is DPMA.
  • National-only DE trademarks — those filed directly with DPMA, not via Madrid IR or EUTM.
  • National-only DE designs — those filed directly with DPMA, not via Hague IR or RCD/REUD.
  • Real-time DPMA file history — DPMAregister UI has live file inspection; EPO OPS doesn't carry it.
  • DPMA-specific procedural events — opposition, nullity, BPatG appeal status.

§3 Programmatic surfaces

DPMAconnectPlus REST API

Field Value
Endpoint https://dpmaconnect.dpma.de/dpmaws/rest-services/ (separate services per right)
Auth HTTP Basic (username + password); signed Datenempfänger contract required (per user)
Format XML on ST.36 (patents) / ST.66 (TMs) / ST.87 (designs) extension schemas
Cost EUR 200 one-time connection fee (§4.2); per-record retrieval free; optional Frontfile/backfile packages priced separately
Rate limit 1,000 hits per search query for production accounts; 100 for test accounts; §2.2 lets DPMA cap volume if a user impairs availability
ToS posture §3.2 forbids rebroadcasting the data records to third parties (with carve-out for purpose §3.1(b)); §2.1 requires a registered, non-dynamic IP — exactly the self-host shape. Per-user BYOK is permitted; zero-infra proxy is not.
Rating (BYOK) 🟢 Green for self-hosted per-user access — same shape as JPO / KIPO / TIPO / INPI France
Rating (zero-infra proxy) 🔴 Red — §3.2 redistribution prohibition forecloses this
Primary sources DPMAconnectPlus overview (DE) · Interface spec (DE PDF) · Standardvertrag DPMAconnectPlus, Stand 01.04.2020 (DE PDF)

The API is technically attractive — structured Expertenrecherche query syntax (Boolean + 50+ INID-coded fields like INH= (proprietor), AT= (application), IC= (IPC class), WAKZ= (PCT family)), production-grade XSDs. The legal posture is more permissive than the older synopsis claimed: §3.2 prohibits rebroadcasting the data records (zero-infra proxy ruled out), not self-hosted operation by the contracting party. §2.1's fixed-IP requirement is in fact the self-host shape — no shared cloud egress IP unless pre-registered. Foreign signup is permitted (Anlage 1 accepts any country; §8 ships EU Standard Contractual Clauses for non-EU/EEA Datenempfänger). See waves/2026-05-18-priority-2-synopses/dpma-byok-rating.md for the contract re-read.

DPMAregister web UI

Field Value
Endpoint register.dpma.de
Auth none (CAPTCHA on some endpoints)
Format HTML, CSV/XLSX export (≤cap), PDF for in-register file inspection
ToS posture UI use only; scraping not encouraged
Verdict 🔴 Red — UI scraping is brittle and against the spirit of the access policy

DEPATISnet (patent search UI)

Field Value
Endpoint depatisnet.dpma.de
Auth none
Format HTML, CSV/XLSX (≤100 rows), PDF/TIFF
ToS posture Public UI; scraping not formally addressed
Verdict 🔴 Red — overlaps EPO OPS DE coverage; brittle

DPMA backfile bulk

Field Value
Endpoint Contract-gated bulk delivery (DPMA datenabgabe)
Cost Paid provision per package
Format WIPO ST.36 patents, ST.86 designs, images
Verdict 🔴 Red — bulk doesn't fit our zero-infra constraint

§4 Fees

DPMA publishes separate fee schedules for patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks. Statutory basis is the Patentkostengesetz (PatKostG) — German Patent Costs Act. DPMAconnectPlus (the bulk API contract) has its own separate access fee.

§5 Access via patent-client-agents

What we cover today

What we CAN add as BYOK (queued)

  • patent_client_agents.dpma_register — DPMAconnectPlus REST connector following the JPO / KIPO / TIPO / INPI France pattern. Env-gates MCP tools on DPMA_CONNECTPLUS_USERNAME + DPMA_CONNECTPLUS_PASSWORD; not exposed by the hosted demo. Three services × ~10 functions for patents, utility models, trademarks, and designs. Estimated ~3-5 days build per the BYOK rating memo. Adds the only authoritative path to DE Gebrauchsmuster, national-only DE TMs, and national-only DE designs. See BACKLOG entry row "DPMA contract re-read" for the queued spec.

What we should NOT add (and why)

  • DPMA-as-zero-infra-proxy on the hosted demo — §3.2 prohibits us rebroadcasting the data records to third parties. The hosted demo at mcp.patentclient.com cannot carry DPMAconnectPlus credentials; that's a design boundary, not a build gap.
  • DEPATISnet scrape — brittle, UI-only, and redundant with EPO OPS DE coverage at the biblio/family layer. 5,000-hit/day per-IP cap on the UI is explicitly anti-automation.
  • DPMAregister live scrape — same; CAPTCHA-gated, same 5,000/day cap, redirects volume users to DPMAconnectPlus.

What we could add later

  • dpma_caselaw — BPatG decisions via rechtsprechung-im-internet.de XML feed + BGH via the RiI daily feed. Substantive law / case law layer, no register proxy. See connectors/dpma.md §7 for the asset details.

Next steps

  1. Write specs/de-dpma-connector-spec.md for the dpma_register connector. Pattern: JPO env-gating + Basic auth + ST.36/66/87 XML parsing.
  2. Decide whether to record live cassettes (requires paying the EUR 200 connection fee + registering a fixed IP) or ship with synthesized fixtures (KIPO / INPI France precedent — live cassettes pending downstream-user credentials).
  3. Watch BPatG case-law coverage as a substantive-law expansion target — redistribution-clean and adds real value for DE IP litigation work.

§6 Known unknowns

  • Signup operational path. §3.2 of the standard contract permits BYOK; the open question is how to submit it — postal-only ("Präsidentin des DPMA, 80297 München") or signed-PDF email? Test-account workflow vs. production-account workflow? Both undocumented in primary sources read so far.
  • VAT treatment for non-EU contracting parties. EUR 200 base fee per §4.2; §8 ships EU-SCC for non-EU/EEA Datenempfänger but doesn't address VAT.
  • DPMAregister modernization timeline. No primary source found.

§7 References

Primary sources only.

Service overviews:

Technical specs:

Legal terms:

Fees:

Detail survey + wave:

Last updated 2026-05-18.