PCT National Phase in Germany: 7 Essential Steps

Your PCT clock is ticking, and Germany is almost certainly on your list: it is Europe’s largest patent market and the busiest venue in the new Unified Patent Court. Miss the entry date and the door closes for good. Getting the PCT national phase in Germany right means knowing one hard deadline, the translation you must file, and a strategic fork – a direct national filing at the DPMA versus the European route. This guide walks the seven steps in the order you actually take them.

When the PCT National Phase in Germany Begins

There are two ways an international application can reach Germany, and you choose between them at entry. You can file the German national phase directly at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), or you can enter the European regional phase at the EPO and later validate the granted European patent in Germany. Both are legitimate; they suit different portfolios.

The deadline is the fact to burn into your docket. Since 1 May 2022 the DPMA allows 31 months from the earliest priority date to enter the national phase – extended from the old 30-month limit. The EPO’s regional phase deadline is also 31 months, so the two routes now share the same drop-dead date. It is non-extendable in the ordinary sense; late entry needs re-establishment of rights, which is neither cheap nor certain.

• National route: file at the DPMA for a purely German patent, examined by German examiners.
• European route: enter the EPO regional phase, get one European patent, then validate it in Germany (and any other EPC states you want).
• Same 31-month deadline either way – measured from your earliest priority date.

Step 1: Confirm Your Deadline and Priority Date

Everything hangs off the earliest priority date, not the international filing date. Pull the priority claim from your PCT request, add 31 months, and diary it with a comfortable buffer. If you claimed multiple priorities, the earliest one governs. When the calculated date lands on a weekend or a German public holiday, the limit rolls to the next working day – but do not rely on that as breathing room.

Step 2: File the German Translation

If your international application was not published in German, you must file a complete German translation of the description, claims, any text in the drawings, and the abstract. This is the single most common reason national-phase entries run late – good technical translation of a full specification takes weeks, so brief your translator early rather than in the final fortnight.

Applications published in German need no translation. Applications in English or another language do. Build the translation lead time into your docket, not just the entry date itself.

Step 3: Pay the DPMA Fees

German official fees are refreshingly modest compared with many offices. The DPMA charges 40 euros for electronic filing (covering up to ten claims), or 60 euros on paper, with 20 euros per additional claim electronically. A separate search request costs 300 euros. Substantive examination is 350 euros on its own, or a reduced 150 euros if you have already paid for a DPMA search.

Renewal fees start at the third patent year – 70 euros – and escalate over the life of the patent. These are government fees only; attorney and translation costs sit on top, and in practice they dwarf the official charges. The current schedule is published on the DPMA fees page, and it pays to check it rather than rely on a number you saw last year.

One planning point on the fees: the reduced 150-euro examination fee is only available if you have already paid the 300-euro DPMA search. So the search-first sequence is not just about intelligence on your claims – it also caps your examination cost. Applicants who skip straight to examination pay the full 350 euros and lose the early read on prior art.

Step 4: Request Search and Examination

A German patent is not examined automatically. You must actively request substantive examination, and you have up to seven years from the international filing date to do it. That long window is a genuine strategic lever: you can defer examination while you test the market, then request it (and pay) only if the invention proves commercially worth pursuing.

An optional separate search request produces a report on the state of the art before you commit to examination. Many applicants order the search first, use it to judge the strength of their claims, then decide whether the 150-euro reduced examination fee is worth spending. The mechanics of national-phase entry, including translation and formalities, are set out on the DPMA’s international applications page and in the WIPO PCT resources.

Two practical warnings sit inside this step. First, deferring examination does not defer renewal fees – those still fall due from the third year whether or not you have asked for examination, so an unexamined application still costs money to keep alive. Second, the seven-year window is measured from the international filing date, not from national-phase entry, so a late entry eats into the deferral period you might have wanted to use.

Step 5: Appoint a German Representative

Applicants without a residence or principal place of business in Germany must appoint a German patent attorney or lawyer to act before the DPMA. That representative files the entry, manages the translation, handles office actions, and receives official communications. Line them up before the deadline, not after – a scramble to appoint counsel in the last week is how avoidable mistakes happen.

Step 6: National Filing vs the European Route

If Germany is the only European country you care about, a direct DPMA national filing is usually the cleaner, cheaper path. If you want protection in several EPC states, enter the EPO regional phase instead: one prosecution yields one European patent you then validate country by country – and, since 2023, you can opt for a Unitary Patent covering the participating EU states in a single right. Germany hosts three of the most active Unified Patent Court divisions, in Munich, Mannheim and Düsseldorf.

The trade-off is scope versus simplicity. National filing keeps things contained and under German examination. The European route costs more up front but scales across the continent. For guidance on the second path, see our companion pieces on validating a European patent in Germany and the broader question of how to file a patent in Germany.

Step 7: Plan for Enforcement in Germany

A granted patent is only worth what you can enforce. Germany is the enforcement engine of Europe: its bifurcated system splits infringement (heard in the regional courts, the Landgerichte) from validity (the Federal Patent Court in Munich), and injunctions are comparatively fast to obtain. For European patents, the Unified Patent Court now offers pan-European injunctions in a single action.

Build the enforcement picture into your filing strategy from day one. Our Germany services hub and city teams for patent invalidation in Munich and infringement analysis in Düsseldorf support exactly this work.

How PerspireIP Can Help

Entering the PCT national phase in Germany rewards early planning – a diarised deadline, a translation started in good time, and a clear-eyed choice between the national and European routes. PerspireIP coordinates German national-phase entries, prior-art and validity searches, and EPO strategy end to end. Talk to our team before your 31-month date to map the right path.

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