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Germany is the busiest patent jurisdiction in Europe, and one of the least forgiving about the look of your figures. The rules governing patent drawings in Germany sit in a short annex to a procedural ordinance, and they say things that surprise anyone who files mostly at the USPTO: no colour, no photographs, and a hard minimum character height measured in centimetres. Those are not drafting preferences. They are formal requirements, and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) raises a formal objection when a sheet misses them.
Which Rulebook Governs Patent Drawings in Germany
What makes this worth getting right is the divergence between the offices. The EPO started accepting colour and greyscale figures electronically on 1 October 2025. The USPTO has allowed photographs for decades where they are the only practicable medium. The DPMA national route did neither. If you are reusing one drawing set across three offices, Germany is the one that breaks it.
The German Patent Act (Patentgesetz, PatG) says almost nothing about how a figure should look. The detail sits in the Patentverordnung (PatV) — the Ordinance on Patent Procedures before the DPMA. Section 12 PatV does the whole job in one sentence: drawings that are filed must comply with the standards contained in Annex 2.
Annex 2 is barely two pages long. That brevity is deceptive, because every clause in it is a formal requirement capable of triggering an objection. Applicants who treat Annex 2 as guidance rather than law are the ones who end up filing replacement sheets.
There is a second rulebook to keep separate in your head. A European patent that is validated in Germany was examined under the EPC, and its drawings were assessed against EPO practice — not against Annex 2. Whether Annex 2 applies to you depends entirely on the route you took, which is the subject of a later section.
- National DPMA filing — Annex 2 PatV applies in full.
- PCT national phase at the DPMA — Annex 2 applies to the German national phase.
- European patent validated in Germany — EPO drawing practice governed the figures; Annex 2 does not retrospectively apply.
- Utility model (Gebrauchsmuster) — an equivalent formal standard applies under the utility model ordinance.
Rule 1: Black Lines Only, No Colour
Annex 2 requires drawings to be executed with sufficient contrast, in durable black, sufficiently firm and dark, uniform and sharply defined lines and strokes — without colours. There is no petition procedure to escape this. There is no "necessary to understand the invention" exception of the kind US practitioners reach for.
WIPO’s own PCT Applicant’s Guide national chapter for Germany states the position bluntly for national phase entry: the German Patent Office does not accept colour drawings under its national law. If your figures carry colour-coded layers, colour-keyed legends, or a colour heat map, they do not survive the German national route in that form.
The practical fix is to convert meaning carried by colour into meaning carried by line work. Hatching, stippling, differing line weights and reference signs can all do the job. Annex 2 expressly contemplates hatching for sectional views, with one condition attached: it must not obscure the reference signs.
Rule 2: No Photographs
Annex 2 tells you what a drawing may be: a view, a sectional drawing, a perspective view or an exploded view. Photographs are not provided for. This is the single sharpest divergence from US practice.
Under 37 CFR 1.84(b), the USPTO accepts photographs in utility and design applications where photographs are the only practicable medium for illustrating the claimed invention — electrophoresis gels, blots, crystalline structures, in vivo imaging and similar subject matter. 37 CFR 1.84(a)(2) separately allows colour drawings on grant of a petition explaining why the colour is necessary.
Neither escape hatch exists on the German national route. An applicant whose US case rests on a micrograph has to commission a line-drawing rendition of the same subject matter for Germany, and has to make sure that rendition does not add matter beyond the original disclosure.
Design protection is a separate system and should not be reasoned about from patent rules. Registered Community designs go to the EUIPO, and the Hague system offers another path; the EPC does not govern designs at all. US design drawings answer to 37 CFR 1.152, which requires compliance with 1.84 plus a sufficient number of views to constitute a complete disclosure of the appearance of the design.
Rules 3 and 4: Sheet Geometry and the 0.32 cm Character Floor
Drawings are filed on separate sheets in DIN A4 format, 21 cm by 29.7 cm, used in portrait orientation. Annex 2 then constrains what you may use of that sheet. The area used for illustrations must not exceed 26.2 cm by 17 cm.
The minimum margins are specific and asymmetric, which catches out templates built for other offices:
- Top margin: 2.5 cm
- Left margin: 2.5 cm
- Right margin: 1.5 cm
- Bottom margin: 1 cm
Rule 4 is the one most often missed outright. Numerals and letters used in the drawings must be at least 0.32 cm high. That is a floor on physical height on the sheet, not a font size in points, so it interacts with whatever scale you chose. Shrink a dense figure to fit and the reference numerals fall below the threshold.
Annex 2 reinforces the point with a legibility test rather than a resolution number: scale and clarity must be such that, after electronic capture, all details remain clearly recognisable even when reduced to two-thirds. If you cannot pass that test, the answer is to split the figure across sheets, not to compress the lettering. Letters should be Latin, with Greek characters where that is customary, and lines should be drawn with instruments rather than freehand.
Rules 5, 6 and 7: Numbering, Reference Signs and Text on the Sheet
Rule 5 covers arrangement and numbering. Individual figures are numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. More than one figure may appear on a sheet, and Annex 2 positively wants you to do that rather than waste space — but the figures must be clearly separated from one another, and portrait arrangement is preferred. Where one figure spans several sheets, all its parts must be at a uniform scale.
Rule 6 is about reference signs, and it runs in the opposite direction to what many drafters expect. Reference signs may appear in the drawings only where they are cited in the description or the claims. Decorative or orphan numerals are a defect, not a harmless surplus. The converse duty also applies: where the application contains drawings, the features recited in the claims should be given their reference signs.
Rule 7 restricts text on the sheet. Explanatory wording is not permitted, with a narrow exception for brief indispensable technical terms — the classic examples in the German text are "water", "steam", "open" and "closed". Flowchart boxes stuffed with sentences, annotation callouts and marketing labels all fail here.
Taken together, rules 6 and 7 mean the reference-sign apparatus has to carry the explanatory load. That is a drafting discipline, and it is why reference-numeral hygiene matters more in Germany than in offices that tolerate labelled figures.
Why Germany, the EPO and the USPTO Now Diverge
Anyone citing Rule 46 EPC for European drawing form is working from a repealed text. Rule 46 EPC and Rule 49(3) to (12) EPC were deleted with effect from 1 February 2023, as part of the EPO’s digital transformation package agreed by the Administrative Council in October 2022. Rules 49(2), 50, 57(i) and 82(2) EPC were adapted to match.
The form requirements did not disappear; they moved. They now live in a Decision of the President of the EPO published in the Official Journal, which lets the EPO change presentation rules without amending the Implementing Regulations. That is precisely how the next change arrived.
From 1 October 2025 the EPO accepts drawings filed electronically in colour or greyscale, provided they are contrast-rich and clear at 300 dpi. The concession covers drawings only — description, claims and abstract remain black and white. So a European application can now carry a colour figure that the DPMA would refuse on the national route.
The PCT was not changed. PCT Rule 11.13(a) still requires drawings in durable, black, sufficiently dense lines "without colorings". For a Euro-PCT case the EPO will work from colour only where the colour drawings are on PATENTSCOPE and the international publication says so. Our comparison of USPTO versus EPO patent drawings and the detail in our PCT drawing requirements guide both set out how these layers stack.
- DPMA national: black line work only, no colour, no photographs.
- EPO: colour and greyscale accepted electronically since 1 October 2025, drawings only, 300 dpi.
- PCT international: black lines without colorings, Rule 11.13(a), unchanged.
- USPTO: photographs where they are the only practicable medium; colour on petition under 1.84(a)(2).
Routes into Germany and What Each Does to Your Figures
The route decides the rulebook, so choose it with the drawings in mind rather than fixing the drawings afterwards.
A direct national filing at the DPMA puts you squarely under Annex 2. The office sits in Munich, with further locations in Jena and Berlin, and it conducts substantive examination on request. Our walkthrough of how to file a patent in Germany covers the procedural side.
The PCT national phase at the DPMA is open — Germany is not one of the EPC states that closed its national route. WIPO’s PCT Applicant’s Guide national chapter for Germany gives the time limit as 31 months from the priority date under PCT Article 22(3) and Article 39(1)(b), with a German translation required covering the description, the claims, any text matter of the drawings and the abstract. For a utility model entry, the abstract translation is not required.
Validating a European patent in Germany is the cheapest route on translations anywhere in Europe. Germany ratified the London Agreement, and because German is already an EPO official language, no translation of the specification is required for the patent to take effect — including where the EP was granted in English or French. The drawings travel as granted by the EPO, Annex 2 notwithstanding.
The German utility model (Gebrauchsmuster) is the fast option. The DPMA carries out a formal examination only — there is no substantive examination of novelty or inventive step — and protection runs for a maximum of ten years from the end of the month in which the application was filed. Formal means formal, so the drawing standard is the part that actually gets scrutinised.
Where Drawing Defects Surface in German Litigation
Germany is bifurcated, and that changes where a figure can hurt you. Infringement is heard by twelve regional courts (Landgerichte) with patent jurisdiction, in practice concentrated in Düsseldorf, Mannheim and Munich I. Appeals go to the relevant Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) and then, on points of law, to the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof).
Validity is not a defence in the infringement action. A nullity action is filed separately at the Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) in Munich, with appeal to the Bundesgerichtshof. Because the nullity decision usually lands after the infringement judgment, Germany produces the well-documented "invalid but infringed" interval that makes German venues attractive to patentees.
Since June 2023 the Unified Patent Court runs alongside this. Germany hosts four UPC local divisions — Düsseldorf, Munich, Mannheim and Hamburg — and the central division, whose seat is Paris, has a Munich section that takes cases in IPC class F, covering mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and blasting.
In all of these forums the drawings are construction material. German courts read the claims in the light of the description and drawings, and a figure that contradicts the claim language, or that was redrawn during prosecution in a way that shifted what it disclosed, gives an opponent an added-matter or a non-infringement argument. That is the real reason the formal standard is worth meeting at filing rather than by replacement sheet: every redraw is an opportunity to disclose something slightly different. Our EPO drawing requirements guide covers the parallel European analysis.
For teams filing into the German market we prepare compliant figure sets from the local drawing desks nearest the work — see our patent drawing services in Munich, Berlin, Mannheim and Düsseldorf.
A Pre-Filing Checklist for Patent Drawings in Germany
Run this before the sheets go to the DPMA. Every item maps to a clause of Annex 2 or Section 12 PatV.
- DIN A4 sheets, 21 cm by 29.7 cm, portrait, drawings on their own sheets.
- Illustration area within 26.2 cm by 17 cm; margins at least 2.5 cm top, 2.5 cm left, 1.5 cm right, 1 cm bottom.
- Durable black line work with sufficient contrast; no colour anywhere on the sheet.
- No photographs; convert any photographic subject matter to line work without adding matter.
- All numerals and letters at least 0.32 cm high on the sheet as filed.
- Still legible at two-thirds reduction after electronic capture.
- Figures numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, clearly separated, uniform scale across split figures.
- Every reference sign cited in the description or claims, and every claimed feature given its sign.
- No explanatory text beyond brief indispensable terms such as "water" or "open".
- Hatching used for sections does not obscure any reference sign.
If you are also filing in the United States, keep two masters rather than one. Trying to satisfy Annex 2 and 37 CFR 1.84 with a single sheet set is possible for simple mechanical cases and a false economy for anything involving imaging, biology or colour-dependent disclosure.
Get German-Compliant Figures the First Time
PerspireIP prepares patent drawings in Germany to Annex 2 PatV, alongside EPO, PCT and USPTO sets for the same invention, at a flat rate per figure. Our draughtspeople work from your specification and claims, so the reference signs match the text and the figures do not add matter. See our patent drawing services or contact us with a sketch and a filing deadline, and we will tell you what the German route needs before you commit to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are colour patent drawings allowed in Germany?
No. Annex 2 PatV requires durable black lines without colours, and WIPO’s PCT Applicant’s Guide confirms the DPMA does not accept colour drawings under German national law. The EPO, by contrast, has accepted colour and greyscale drawings filed electronically since 1 October 2025.
Can I file photographs instead of line drawings at the DPMA?
No. Annex 2 provides for views, sectional drawings, perspective views and exploded views only. Unlike 37 CFR 1.84(b) at the USPTO, there is no ‘only practicable medium’ exception on the German national route.
What are the margin requirements for patent drawings in Germany?
At least 2.5 cm at the top, 2.5 cm on the left, 1.5 cm on the right and 1 cm at the bottom of a DIN A4 sheet, with the illustration area not exceeding 26.2 cm by 17 cm.
Does Rule 46 EPC still govern European drawings?
No. Rule 46 EPC and Rule 49(3) to (12) EPC were deleted with effect from 1 February 2023. The form requirements moved into a Decision of the President of the EPO published in the Official Journal.
Do I need a German translation of my drawings for PCT national phase entry?
You need a German translation of any text matter appearing in the drawings, along with the description, claims and abstract. WIPO’s national chapter for Germany gives the national phase time limit as 31 months from the priority date.
Do Annex 2 rules apply to a European patent validated in Germany?
No. The drawings of a validated European patent were assessed under EPO practice. Germany also requires no translation of the specification, because German is an EPO official language and Germany ratified the London Agreement.