Procedures for filing patent applications
Once an invention disclosure has been submitted to the OVGU Transfer and Start-Up Center, it is first checked for formal completeness and accuracy. You will immediately receive confirmation that your invention disclosure has been received. We may contact you with further queries to ensure that the invention disclosure is complete and free from legal errors.
Once the invention disclosure has been verified as accurate and complete, we may take up to four months to assess the extent to which the invention is novel and inventive, and thus meets the minimum criteria for a successful application for intellectual property rights. This process can be expedited if a qualified search result regarding the state of the art is available, for example from the OVGU Patent Information Centre.
Otto von Guericke University will then decide, before the end of the four-month period, whether to claim the invention and prepare it for patent application. For this purpose, we may also engage third parties, such as patent attorneys or patent exploitation agencies. These service providers will contact you, the inventor, to clarify any questions and request any further documents that may be required, such as drawings compliant with official requirements, experimental descriptions or feature analyses to distinguish the invention from the prior art. In special cases, the question of whether to file the invention may also be submitted to the OVGU’s IP Board, which acts in an advisory capacity regarding the OVGU’s registrations for intellectual property rights. As a general rule, the OVGU files a German patent registration. In special cases, however, it is also possible, for example, to file a European patent registration as the first registration. This may be the case if staff from foreign cooperation partners (universities or companies) were involved in the invention and a joint registration is to be filed.
Once the registration of the invention has been made (confirmed receipt by the relevant patent office), you may generally publish the content of the invention. Please ensure, however, that you do not publish any additional features or further developments, as these could potentially be used in a subsequent registration. Premature publication would preclude this. Eighteen months after the registration is received by the patent office, the registration is published and is then also visible to the public. During this period, the office will produce one or more search reports/examination reports, which usually require discussion and a response. For this, we will again draw on your technical expertise.
Up to twelve months after filing the initial patent registration, a decision is made as to whether the registration should be extended to other countries. This is possible, for example, through an international PCT registration under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which currently comprises 152 contracting states. A maximum of 30 months later (with a few exceptions), nationalisation or regionalisation applications can then be filed in selected countries. For all countries not selected and claimed by OVGU, you will receive timely authorisation to file your own patent application in those countries in your name and at your own expense.
When it comes to exploitation, the OVGU will generally not sell the intellectual property rights, but will instead conclude one or more licence agreements with third parties. The inventors are jointly entitled to 30% of the proceeds generated from this, which will be distributed in accordance with the inventors’ shares.
If you have any further questions, the team at the Transfer and Start-Up Center, Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights Department (contact: Mr Martin Krause; email: martin1.krause@ovgu.de; tel.: 0391 67-52091), will be more than happy to assist you.