Important changes to the German Patent Law will come into effect on 1st April 2014.
These changes will adjust some of the procedures surrounding patent applications filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) and bring them into line (not to mention into competition) with the procedures that currently surround filing applications before the European Patent Office (EPO).
The changes will allow applicants to establish a priority date by filing a patent application in a foreign language and use the GPTO as a Search Authority. As a result the GPTO will not only compete with the EPO for German applications but also for applications written in English or French.
For the complete text please download the pdf-file here.