Defence of Patents

It may become necessary to defend the granted industrial property rights, since, within the predetermined period (three months for a German patent, nine months for a European patent) for filing an opposition after the grant of the patent, any third party may basically request revocation of the patent or else declaration of nullity by way of filing an opposition and subsequently by way of bringing a nullity action at any time during the maximum twenty-year term calculated from the filing date.

Opposition or nullity suits may in particular be substantiated by the fact that the subject matter of the patent did not substantiate a patentable invention at the filing date of the patent application, since corresponding preliminary publications were already known prior to the filing date.