(1) The following are to be set up within the German Patent and Trade Mark Office:
1. examining sections responsible for processing patent applications and providing information on the state of the art (section 29 (3));
2. patent divisions responsible for all matters concerning the patents granted, the fixing of remuneration (section 23 (4) and (6)) and granting of legal aid in proceedings before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. It is also incumbent upon each Patent Division to render expert opinions within its sphere of business (section 29 (1) and (2)).
(2) The obligations incumbent upon an examining section are performed by a technically qualified member of the Patent Division (patent examiner).
(3) The Patent Division constitutes a quorum when at least three members are participating, at least two of whom must be technically qualified members in cases where the Division is operating in opposition proceedings. Where the case presents particular legal difficulties and if none of the participants is a legally qualified member, a legally qualified member of the Patent Division is, as a rule, to be involved in taking the decision. A decision on the basis of which a request to consult a legally qualified member is refused is not independently contestable.
(4) The chair of the Patent Division may act alone in handling all the Patent Division’s matters, except for decisions regarding the maintenance, revocation or limitation of a patent, as well as regarding the fixing of remuneration (section 23 (4)), or may delegate these tasks to a technically qualified member of the Division; this does not apply to a hearing.
(5) The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is authorised to entrust, by statutory instrument, civil servants of the upper and intermediate grades and comparable employees with handling matters incumbent upon the examining sections or Patent Divisions and which by their nature present no particular technical or legal difficulties; however, this excludes the grant of a patent and the refusal of an application on grounds in respect of which the applicant has filed an opposition. The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection may, by statutory instrument, delegate this authorisation to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.
(6) Sections 41 to 44, section 45 (2) sentence 2 and sections 47 to 49 of the Code of Civil Procedure concerning the exclusion of and objection to court personnel apply analogously to the exclusion of and objection to the patent examiners and other technically qualified members of the Patent Divisions. The same applies to civil servants of the upper and intermediate grades and to employees insofar as they have been entrusted, pursuant to subsection (5), with handling individual matters incumbent upon the examining sections or Patent Divisions. The Patent Division decides on the objection request insofar as a decision is necessary.
(7) Experts who are not members may be consulted in the course of deliberations in the Patent Divisions; they may not take part in the voting.