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Matthias Rößler - 8. September 2020

Practical tips for creating patent drawings

Drawings for an invention

Drawings are not a mandatory part of a patent application, but they can be very helpful in understanding the concept of invention.

In addition to sketches, technical drawings and photos, CAD data, vector graphics or the image of a prototype of the product to be protected are also suitable as a basis for a patent drawing.

The design of a patent drawing is governed by the country-specific guidelines of the patent offices. The guidelines for Germany are summarized in the "Patentverordnung PatV Anlage 2 zu §12".

Form requirements from the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO)

The DPMA recommends that patent drawings be made with drawing instruments.

In practice, however, both freehand drawings and patent drawings created using CAD programs are submitted and recognized.

  • A patent drawing may contain several figures.
  • The numbers and letters used for the patent drawing must be at least 0.32 cm high, so that everything is still legible when reduced three times.
  • To ensure sufficient contrast, only black color may be used. All other colors are not allowed.
  • Cross sections and cut surfaces must be marked by hatching. The representation of reference mark lines must be curved to clearly delimit them from the guide lines of the drawing.
  • The drawings should not contain explanations. Only those drawings that relate to the state of the art must be marked with the note "state of the art".

Often it can be useful to use the drawings as they were designed by the inventor.

For the preparation of formally correct patent drawings, there are specialized companies that can do this quickly and cost-effectively.

Disclosure

It should be noted that the patent drawings are usually only schematic in nature or are intended to be so, so that this does not include an exact dimension or every detail. The patent drawings are intended to provide a person skilled in the art with an example of an embodiment according to the invention, but not to limit the scope of protection.

Further, especially when depicting real or planned (complex) product designs, it must be checked whether all details are already protected or comprehensively explained in the description. Although it is possible in principle to include only technical details shown in drawings in a patent claim after the patent application has been filed, this has narrow limits.

Feel free to contact us

We undertake the drafting, filing and prosecution of patent and utility model applications, trademark and design applications as well as the conduct of the corresponding granting procedures.

Regarding Matthias Rößler:



Matthias Rößler, German and European Patent Attorney since 2003, studied mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen. He is co-founding partner of karo IP. A main focus of his practice is the management of large patent portfolios and the enforcement of bilateral litigation proceedings before patent offices and patent courts. His additional qualification as Master of Laws (LL.M.) qualifies him especially for multinational infringement matters in Europe.

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