(1) Upon request, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office examines whether the application meets the requirements of sections 34, 37 and 38 and whether the subject matter of the application is patentable under sections 1 to 5.
(2) The request may be filed by the applicant and any third party, who does not, however, participate in the examination procedure on that account, up until the expiry of a period of seven years from the filing of the application. The time limit for payment of the examination fee in accordance with the Patent Costs Act is three months after its due date (section 3 (1) of the Patent Costs Act). This time limit expires at the latest after the expiry of a period of seven years after filing of the application.
(3) If a request in accordance with section 43 has already been filed, the examination procedure does not commence until the request in accordance with section 43 has been executed. Where a third party has filed a request in accordance with subsection (1), receipt of the request is communicated to the applicant. In all other cases, section 43 (2) sentences 2 and 3, and (3) and (5) applies accordingly.
(4) If, following communication to the applicant (subsection (3) sentence 2), the request filed by the third party is deemed to be ineffective, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office communicates this to both the third party and the applicant. In the event of the request filed by the third party being ineffective, the applicant may himself or herself file a request before the expiry of a period of three months from the service of the communication, provided that this time limit expires later than the time limit referred to in subsection (2). If the applicant does not file the request, a notice is published in the Patent Gazette that this request is ineffective, making reference to the publication of the request filed by the third party.
(5) The examination procedure is continued even if the request for examination is withdrawn. In the case referred to in subsection (4) sentence 2, the procedure is continued from that stage which it was at when the applicant filed the request for examination.