Patents serve to safeguard investments in technical innovation. A patent protects the patent holder from unauthorized use of a technical invention by competitors or other third parties. A patent requires a patent application, filed with the respectively designated patent office. Upon request, the office will examine whether an application meets the patent requirements, in particular regarding novelty and inventive step. As an examined technical intellectual property right the patent offers a secure basis for evaluatin infringement cases. A patent becomes valid with the date of publication of the grant and expires, at the latest, 20 years after the date on which the application was filed.

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Introducing a new pharmaceutical or a plant-protective agents normally requires passing long approval proceedings. The remaining period of validity of the respective patent(s) is often insufficient to regain a positive return on the considerable investments involved. The Supplementary Protection Certificate was introduced to overcome this problem for these specific types of products. It serves to prolong the protection offered by a patent by up to five years.

Just like patents, utility models ("Gebrauchsmuster") are technical intellectual property rights. They also serve to safeguard investments and offer essentially the same scope of protection. Since during registration novelty and inventive step are not examined, a utility model can be obtained rather quickly. The term is ten years at maximum.

Since structures of microelectronic products are expensive to develop on the one hand and easy to copy on the other, a special proctection has been introduced for such structures (called "topography" in German law corresponding to "mask works" and "circuit layouts"). This protection requires "peculiarity", i.e. the structure must not be a copy of an existing structure and not commenplace, and an application with the relevant registration agency. The term of protection is ten years.

Newly detected or grown plant varieties may be protected by "plant variety rights" as special intellectual property rights. A plant variety right confers upon its holder the exclusive right to grow and market the protected plant variety. Plant Variety Offices grant the right, if the requirements such as novelty and distinctiveness are met. The duration of a plant variety right is 25 or 30 years, depending on the kind of plant variety.

Rights to the name of a person and to commercial signs, in particular trade marks as intellectual property rights, provide protection from identical, confusing, exploiting, harmful and/or misleading use of a sign. According to the Trade Mark Act of 1995 ("Markengesetz") trade marks can be obtained for goods as well as services in a variety of forms, e.g. as three dimensional marks or as sound marks. It is possible to obtain trade mark protection through registration of a trade mark with a registration agency. The term of protection can be extended indefinitely.

The provisions of the German Unfair Competition Act ("Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb" = "UWG") shield businesses from activities irreconcilable with fair competition. Section 3 of the UWG prohibits unfair practices in commerce. Such practices comprise e.g. obstruction, for instance inobjective comparisons in advertising. Section 3 in conjunction with section 4 Nr. 5 of the UWG also prohibit product counterfeiting if no intellectual property rights are involved, but certain circumstances render the action unlawful. Systematic violations of laws, e.g. the Pharmaceuticals Act ("Arzneimittelgesetz") or the Price Indication Regulation ("Preisangabenverordnung"), may be subject to section 3 UWG in conjunction with section 4 item 11 in certain cases.

Design Patents ("Geschmacksmuster") protect new and original commercial designs from unauthorized imitation. Design patents may be registered with the relevant registration agency. In contrast to the technical intellectual property rights (patents and utility models) protection does not require a technical innovation. Rather, a particular appearance of the design is necessary. The term of a design patent is 25 years at maximum.

Copyrights protect in particular works of literature, sciences, and arts from unauthorized copying and distribution. In contrast to most intellectual property rights, a copyright results from the creation of the work already rather than registration. Sections 69a - 69h of the German Copyright Act ("Urheberrechtsgesetz") supply specific provisions for computer software. Accordingly, a copyright covers the expression in any form of a computer program but not the underlying ideas and principles. Patent or utility model protection may be considered in certain cases. The right of the producer of a database is protected under separate provisions of the German Copyright Act.

Even though the internet law has not been established as a separate area of law yet, a variety of trade mark, unfair competition and copyright cases posed specific questions relating to the technical peculiarities of the internet. Not only domain grabbing but also e.g. metatags, deep links, and advertising banners constantly present new legal problems.