-----Original Message-----
From: CABINET ARMENGAUD [SMTP:armengau@club-internet.fr]
Sent: Friday, February 12, 1999 5:58 AM
To: EPO@mlist.austria.eu.net
Subject: Re: German patent numbering system
INFOSCITECH - Kaminski Kazimierz wrote:
>
> I am trying to solve the following puzzle, and I suspect that the solution
> may have something to do with the German patent numbering system I am not
> familiar with.
>
> US patent No. 3,941,932 (relating broadly to electroacoustics) refers in its
> disclosure to "German patent specification 967,167" which is supposed to
> relate to the same subject matter. My client obtained a copy of the German
> patent (Patentschrift No. 967,167, granted October 17, 1957). The only
> problem is that this patent is directed to pneumatic brakes, not to
> electroacoustics.
>
> I am aware of the fact that the German patent system distinguishes between a
> patent (Patentschrift) and a published patent application
> (Offenlegungsschrift), as do patent systems of many countries. In some
> countries patents and published applications are numbered as two (or
> sometimes more) independent series, so that the number is not always
> sufficient to identify unambiguously a document, i.e., one needs both the
> number _and_ the kind of document. I suspected that the document referred
> to in US 3,941,932 may have been an Offenlegungsschrift with the same
> number, distinct from the Patentschrift 967,167. Was my suspicion correct?
> Do German patents retain the number under which they were published (as is
> the case in Canada)? What was the numbering system in place in 50s and has
> it changed since then? My client tried to order Offenlegungsschrift 967,167
> (as opposed to Patentschrift 967,167), but was told that "there is only one
> kind of document DE 967,167".
>
> Assuming that I am wrong, meaning that the Patentschrift retains upon grant
> the same number as the corresponding Offenlegungsschrift, the only possible
> explanation is that the German patent number cited in the US patent is
> incorrect. I do have a presumed name of the inventor of the German
> patent/patent application. Is there any database of German patents going
> back to 50s which could be searched to check if there are any patents
> showing this inventor name?
>
> Any hints and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Kazimierz T. Kaminski, Ph.D.
> Patent Agent
> InfoSciTech Information Consultants Inc.
> ktk@infoscitech.ca
> http://www.infoscitech.ca
Since 1968, German patents are numbered P 2 000 000 and over (Filing
number, Offenlegungsschrift number and Patentschrift number). DE 967,167
therefore can't be an after 1968 DE patent number. We neither think it
can be a Utility Model number: indeed, they appear as GMB followed by
the last two digits of the year, further followed by a number; and the
prior art you're looking for can't be from 1996.
Before 1968, DE patent numbers were :
i. filing number = a letter corresponding to the technical domain, e.g.
B or C, followed by a number,
ii. Auslegungsschrift number or DAS (public inspection) which became
the Patentschrift number (PS) when no opposition succeeded.
DE 967,167 may thus correspond to a before 1968 DAS or PS number. As
this document however appears to be unrelated to your subject matter,
and as this number neither appears to us as a possible DD patent number,
we therefore think the German patent number cited in the US patent is
incorrect.
Unfortunately, the only database we know for DE patents is espace@net
(see EPO home page www.european-patent-office.org), of which patent data
coverage is from 1967...
Cabinet Armengaud, Paris.