The Federal Court of Justice has decided by decision of 16. October 2012 (X ZB 10/11 – “Plug connection”) clarified, what schematic drawings in a patent specification reveal – and what they do not.

Guiding principle

• Schematic representations, as they are commonly found in patent documents, usually reveal only the principle of the claimed device, but not exact dimensions.
• A court is not generally held, pointed a party to safeguard the rights of the defense explicitly, that it regards a reproduced in a patent drawing only as schematic and not to scale, as a construction drawing.

Facts

The patent in dispute concerned a plug connection with several rows of multi-pole contacts. Upon objection, the DPMA revoked the patent; the complaint was unsuccessful. The Federal Patent Court held that a feature was included in all defended versions - only one type of contact element for knives- and female connector - for not originally disclosed. It is clear neither from the claims and description nor clearly from the perspective figures. The patent owner filed a legal complaint, She was not made aware of this view of the drawings.

The decision

The BGH rejected the legal complaint. The requirement to be heard does not constitute a general obligation to provide information; a note is only required, if the court's considerations cannot be foreseen even with careful conduct of the proceedings. That is not the case here: According to the unanimous opinion in case law and literature, schematic patent drawings usually only show the principle, not exact dimensions. The patent owner should therefore have made the case in the appeal court at the latest, that the figures are isometric from their point of view, contain true-to-scale representations.

Importance for practice

Who will focus on measurements later, want to support proportions or details, should explicitly disclose this in the description or claims and not rely solely on the figures. In objection- or complaint procedure must be explained by the party itself, why a drawing should show more than the principle. The summary reflects the legal status at the time of the decision.

Full text: rechtsprechung-im-internet.de (File number X E.g 10/11)

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Summary of the decision; no legal advice in individual cases.