Best for
Best for applicants and owners of German trade marks who want to search the official register and watch it for new filings themselves.
Trademark Search & Monitoring Comparison
DPMAregister vs. Signa
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for developers and law firms who build trademark search, screening and monitoring into their own software or AI assistants.
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | DPMAregister | Signa |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free of charge The DPMA states that DPMAregister and the DPMAkurier alerts can be used free of charge; the DPMA connectPlus interface is supplied under an agreement against payment of the marginal cost of providing the data. | From $99 / month Starter, billed yearly, with 20,000 credits a month (up to 2,000 searches) and $10 per 1,000 extra credits. Growth is $399 and Scale $999 a month, also billed yearly. The page offers monthly billing and says annual billing saves up to 25%, without stating the monthly amounts. A search costs 10 credits; credit costs for screening and watches are not yet announced. |
| Free trial | Not stated | Free tier with 10,000 credits on signup and 1,000 credits a month, up to 100 searches, no card required |
| Output | Configurable result lists that can be organised and downloaded, and register entries that print or download as a complete register extract | Not stated |
| API | DPMA connectPlus, an automated interface to the register and publication data, supplied under an agreement | Yes, a REST API with webhooks, a TypeScript SDK, agent skills and a hosted MCP server at api.signa.so/mcp |
| Languages | English and German | Not stated |
| Hosting | Web app at register.dpma.de | Cloud: a web app, a REST API, a hosted MCP server and agent skills |
| Made in | Germany | Not stated |
| Registers and countries covered | German trade marks filed since 1 January 1998, registered German marks since October 1894 insofar as they were not deleted before 1 January 1995, an excerpt of rejected and withdrawn German marks, EU trade marks from the EUIPO, and WIPO international registrations where Germany or the EU is designated. The DPMA does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the EU and international data and points to the EUIPO and WIPO databases for a full search | 13 production offices with more than 40 million records: USPTO, EUIPO, WIPO, CIPO (Canada), IP Australia, IPOS (Singapore), UKIPO, INPI (France), Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and IMPI (Mexico), most synced daily and Canada and France weekly. DPMA, BOIP, JPO, KIPO, CNIPA and further offices are listed as planned. |
| Word, phonetic and image search | Basic, advanced and expert searches; the expert search queries register fields such as mark, type of mark, proprietor, classes, goods and services, colours and dates with comparison and proximity operators and wildcards, and figurative elements are searchable by Vienna Classification. The DPMA states that a similarity search is not possible | Text search through five similarity channels (identical, fuzzy, embedded, phonetic and look-alike characters), each hit labelled with its match tier and the channels that found it. Image search is listed as coming soon. |
| Goods, services and Nice classes | Classes and goods and services are search fields of their own, with a link to the internationally harmonised classification of goods and services | Search and watches filter by Nice class, and classification endpoints list classes and goods and services and suggest and validate goods and services wording |
| Clearance and conflict screening | A register search and not a clearance opinion: the DPMA does not check during the application procedure whether identical or similar marks are already registered, refers to commercial providers for similarity searches, and names patent information centres that search on your behalf for a fee | A documented knockout and full similarity search workflow for clearance, a Compare Marks endpoint that scores a candidate against up to 10 selected conflicts, and a Screening product open to design partners during beta. The vendor states the results are informational data and not legal advice. |
| Watch and alerts | DPMAkurier sends automated e-mails daily, weekly or monthly on new publications and register changes, monitoring by file or publication number, by name, by class, by name and class, or user-defined; registration is needed before first use, the number of monitoring searches is not limited, and the DPMA states it can be used free of charge | In beta: five watch types (mark, portfolio, owner, class and similarity), alerts typically within a day of office publication by signed webhook or polling, and computed opposition deadlines on alerts in supported jurisdictions. Image watch is listed as coming soon. |
| Reports and exports | Result lists can be configured, organised and downloaded, a register entry prints or downloads as a complete register extract, and issues of the Markenblatt trade mark journal from 1950 onwards can be downloaded | JSON responses from every endpoint and a monthly proof-of-monitoring attestation per watch, as a PDF and a JSON file |
| Integrations and API | DPMA connectPlus gives automated online access to the register and publication data with the query options of the expert search, plus weekly data packages for trade marks, usually on Fridays; data is supplied on the basis of an agreement against payment of the marginal cost of providing it | REST API with webhooks, a TypeScript SDK, and a hosted MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code; Microsoft Copilot is listed as coming soon |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| MCP-ready | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | Browser-based | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Phone | Not stated |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars, On-site training | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Integrations | Not stated | Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, Visual Studio Code |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price DPMAregister Free of charge Signa From $99 / month
- Deployment DPMAregister Browser-based Signa Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Hosting DPMAregister Web app at register.dpma.de Signa Cloud: a web app, a REST API, a hosted MCP server and agent skills
- AI features DPMAregister No Signa Yes
- MCP-ready DPMAregister No Signa Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
DPMAregister
Strengths
- Covers EU trade marks and international registrations protected in Germany as well as German marks
- Watch alerts by name, class or file number, sent daily, weekly or monthly
- Expert search with proximity operators and Vienna Classification codes
- Telephone hotline for search questions and online-assisted searches with DPMA experts
Limitations
- No similarity search, as the DPMA itself notes
- The DPMA does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the EU and international data
- Covers marks with protection in Germany only
Signa
Strengths
- Free tier with 10,000 credits on signup and 1,000 a month, no card required
- Hosted MCP server and connectors for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
- Thirteen registers in one JSON schema, most of them synced daily
- Watch alerts carry a computed opposition deadline in supported jurisdictions
Limitations
- Screening, listing scans and monitoring are in beta, and image search and image watch are not yet available
- No German, Benelux, Japanese, Korean or Chinese register yet; these are listed as planned
- Paid plans are shown billed yearly; monthly amounts are not stated on the pricing page
- Credit costs for screening and watches are not yet announced
Plans
Pricing
DPMAregister
- DPMAregister search Free of charge Online search of the official register and publication data, from the beginner's search to the expert search.
- DPMAkurier alerts Free of charge Alert e-mails on new publications and register changes; registration needed before first use.
- DPMA connectPlus Not stated Automated interface to the register data, supplied under an agreement against payment of the marginal cost of providing the data.
Signa
- Free $0 Per month. 10,000 credits on signup, then 1,000 credits a month, up to 100 searches, no card required.
- Starter $99 Per month billed yearly. 20,000 credits a month, up to 2,000 searches, $10 per 1,000 extra credits, 300 requests a minute.
- Growth $399 Per month billed yearly. 100,000 credits a month, up to 10,000 searches, $5 per 1,000 extra credits, 1,000 requests a minute.
- Scale $999 Per month billed yearly. 500,000 credits a month, up to 50,000 searches, $2.50 per 1,000 extra credits, 3,000 requests a minute.
- Enterprise Not stated Contact sales. Custom credits, white-label and data rights, SLA and dedicated support.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
DPMAregister
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Signa
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
DPMAregister https://www.dpma.de/english/search/dpmaregister/index.html · checked against the official source on 2026-11-10
Signa https://signa.so/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-05
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.