According to §9 PatG, only the patent proprietor may use the patented invention - all others are prohibited. Exceptions can be found in §11 PatG (see below). In the scientific field, the research or experimental privilege (§ 11 Abs. 2) is of particular importance. The experimental privilege, however, does not mean that patents can be disregarded in research at state or non-profit research institutes, since the privilege regulates not the research per se, but the framework in which it takes place. Experiments that fall under § 11 (2) can serve both the acquisition of research results and purely commercial interests.

Permitted research acts are those experiments which directly relate to the invention ("research on the object"). This concerns experiments that should clarify whether or how a patented invention works or can be further developed. Also included are clinical trials of drugs as part of drug approvals or trials to assess their suitability for the treatment of other diseases.

Accordingly, research is permitted on the subject of the patent - not with the subject of the patent. The prohibition effect of the patent extends to all works which use the protected invention as a vehicle, that is, in which the invention is used as a means of obtaining knowledge in another field. For example, patent-protected methods may be used. B. are not used to experimentally produce patterns. The use of devices that circumvent patented products or processes are also covered by patent protection - even and especially when used for research in a thematically distant area.

Allowed (§11PatG)

The effect of the patent does not extend to
1. acts performed in the private sector for non-commercial purposes;
2. acts for experimental purposes relating to the subject matter of the patented invention;
2a. the use of biological material for the purpose of breeding, discovering and developing a new plant variety;

2 B. Studies and experiments and the resulting practical requirements necessary to obtain a marketing authorization in the European Union for medicinal products or to obtain a medical authorization in the Member States of the European Union or in third countries;

3. the direct individual preparation of medicines in pharmacies on the basis of medical prescription and on actions involving the medicines prepared in this way;

Prohibited (§9PatG)

[The] ... patent ... only the patentee ... may use. Every third person is forbidden to ...
1. to manufacture, offer, place on the market, or use or ... introduce or possess a product;
2. apply a procedure ... or offer it for application within the scope of this Act;
3. to offer, place on the market or use ... the product produced by a process ... or introduce or possess it

Source: www.uni-hamburg.de/forschung/transfer/wissenschaft-wirtschaft/erfinder-patentberatung/forschungsprivileg.html