Patents and utility models are two distinct legal instruments you can use to safeguard a new product or method you have developed. While these protections share certain similarities, it is important to understand their differences, requirements, and applications.
What is a patent?
A patent grants you the exclusive right to use a newly created product or process. It can cover an inventive item or a new way of carrying out a task. For instance, you may patent a novel device or a technical solution to an existing problem.
What is a utility model?
Utility models are often called “short-term patents.” They also grant the holder the exclusive right to exploit an invention commercially, preventing others from using it without authorization. A utility model protects a new creation that modifies the design, structure, or composition of an object, producing a modest advantage in its function or manufacture.
What are utility models used for?
As you can see, the distinctions are narrow. Utility models are especially valuable for small and medium-sized enterprises seeking to protect incremental improvements to existing products. For example, they could be used to secure rights over a specialized brush designed for applying a familiar type of paint.
Utility models are seen as a simpler way of protecting innovations. However, they apply only to physical products, not processes. This makes it crucial to identify exactly what is being protected, since each form of protection has its own rules.
Differences in requirements
Patents must demonstrate worldwide novelty. This is determined by preparing a State of the Art Report to establish originality and inventive step. The process may take up to 36 months, with protection lasting up to 20 years.
Utility models, by contrast, require only national novelty. A two-month period is allowed for third-party objections. The application is usually processed in about six months, with protection lasting up to 10 years.
In both cases, the invention must have industrial applicability, meaning it can be manufactured and used in industry. Annual maintenance fees are required for both. While patents provide stronger and longer protection, they also demand a higher inventive threshold and global uniqueness, making utility models a suitable option for product ideas that offer practical improvements without requiring a groundbreaking technical advance.
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