(1) The German Patent and Trade Mark Office publishes
1. the first publication of the application,
2. the patent specifications, and
3. the Patent Gazette.
Publication may be effected in electronic form. The German Patent and Trade Mark Office may transmit the documents referred to in sentence 1 to third persons in electronic form for further processing or use for the purposes of providing information regarding a patent. No such transmission takes place where inspection of the files is ruled out (section 31 (3b)).
(2) The first publication of the application comprises those documents which may be inspected by any person in accordance with section 31 (2) and the abstract (section 36) as filed or in the altered form as accepted by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office for publication. The first publication of the application is not published if the patent specification has already been published. The German Patent and Trade Mark Office may refrain from publishing the first publication of an application if the application contains information or drawings which are obviously contrary to ʻordre publicʼ or morality.
(3) The patent specification contains the patent claims, description and drawings on the basis of which the patent was granted. In addition, the patent specification is to indicate the state of the art which the German Patent and Trade Mark Office took into account when assessing the patentability of the invention in respect of which an application was filed (section 43 (1)). Where the abstract (section 36) has not yet been published, it is to be included in the patent specification.
(4) The first publication of the application or the patent specification is published under the conditions of section 31 (2) even in cases where the application is withdrawn or refused or deemed to be withdrawn or the patent has lapsed after the technical preparations for publication had been completed.
(5) The Patent Gazette contains regularly published summaries of entries in the Register, provided that they do not only concern the regular expiry of patents or the registration and cancellation of exclusive licences, and information about the possibility of inspecting patent application files.