Utility Model 

For new inventions or improvements

Fast and affordable protection

Utility models are one option to protect your inventions and ensure the exclusive rights to products or processes. By protecting the technical characteristics of these products of processes, utility models are an important step for the success of any business.

Advantages

What are the advantages of utility models?

Exclusive Rights

Utility models grant you the right to exploit inventions, giving you the monopoly on the use, marketing, or manufacturing of the products or processes, preventing non-authorized third parties from using your utility model.

Sale or Licensing

You can obtain gains through assigning or licensing your utility model, with or without consideration. If you wish to do so, our team can help you define and negotiate the best solution for you.

Simple, Easy and Fast

Utility models differ from patents because the registration process is simpler, faster, and more affordable. However, not all jurisdictions recognize utility models. In addition, they have a shorter protection period. The validity of the right depends on the territory, but can last for up to 10 years.

Inventions

What inventions can be protected by utility models?

The granting criteria differ according to the jurisdiction. Usually, utility models protect inventions that:

Are a novelty

An invention should not be disclosed in any form or manner, in any jurisdiction. Additionally, it should be beyond the current state of the art.

Has a technical or pratical advantage

Utility models must have a technical or practical advantage against the state of the art, whether in its use or in its manufacturing process.

Have an industrial application

Everything that can be made or used in any industry, including agriculture.

If you own an innovation with the listed above qualities, it is possible to protect it with utility models. It is also important to consider the potential returns of protecting your invention. Common questions are: Will you market the invention? Is there a good chance that it will be profitable?

If the answers are affirmative, then you own an innovation that is worth protecting. However, for clear answers to your questions, contact our specialists. These professionals can help you compare Utility Models to the different protection methods that may be suited for your specific case: patents and/or industrial designs.

Process

How do we monitor the utility model registration and maintenance process?

Our utility model department monitors every step of the registration and management:

Your questions

Our answers

Utility models are rights that protect inventions. They have similar granting requirements to patents and confer exclusivity rights to their owner.

For a utility model to be granted, the invention must be novel, it should involve an inventive step, and it must have an industrial application. Unlike a patent, it’s enough for the invention to present a practical or technical advantage over pre-existing products or processes. In this case, it is not necessary to meet the most demanding requirement, which would oblige the invention to work in a way that would not be obvious to an expert in the field.

However, utility models differ from patents since they have a more affordable, simpler, and faster registration procedure, usually providing a shorter protection period than a patent.

Nonetheless, not all jurisdictions provide this intellectual property right, and grant requirements and protection period vary.

Unlike utility models, industrial designs protect an innovation’s aesthetic features, including its shape, ornamentations and colors, independently of its technical aspects.

As for copyrights, the same protect artistic, literary, or scientific works from the moment of creation, such as music, cinema, architecture and books.

These types of protection are especially recommended for those who want a fast, simple, and affordable registration and inventions that only present technical or practical advantages in the manufacturing or use of products or processes.

Since it is possible to simultaneously file utility models and patent, the utility model registration may still be useful if you are not sure if your invention meets the requirements for a patent. You will be able to file the utility model and make sure you are not totally unprotected.

Compared to patents it has a shorter protection period and the same differs from country to country, but it can last up to 10 years with or without renewals.

This regime is only recognized and effective in some countries.

You cannot make them public before the utility model application. Otherwise, the inventions are no longer novel and, thus, they will not meet one of the grant requirements.

Yes. Our work is confidential and our clients’ information is never divulged. If you wish, we are able to enter into a nondisclosure agreement.

We are here to monitor the important steps in utility model registration: from the exhaustive search to make sure that no identical or similar innovations exist, to its drafting.

After that, our industrial property agents get the registration filing ready and, during the analysis period, we can provide additional information or respond to notifications from the Offices. We monitor the process right up to the granting and issuing of the registration certificate.

Depending on the jurisdiction, a substantive examination may or may not be mandatory. However, it can be requested by either the applicant or by other interested parties, unlike with patents where the examination is always mandatory.

This examination will evaluate whether the grant requirements of the utility model are fulfilled. When requested, the examination makes the industrial property asset more valuable, as it confirms that it is novel and inventive.

After the publication and granting of the utility model, we ensure a permanent monitoring of the market in order to understand the status of its protection and assess whether there exist any potential ongoing infringements. Moreover, we utilize all kinds of legal measures to combat counterfeiting or the non-authorized exploitation of your utility model.

It is important to add that our service is not confined to a reactive system in response to these risks. We anticipate any harmful and illegal action and outline proactive strategies that allow you to increase the profitability of your industrial property, ensuring its full protection on the market.

Certain jurisdictions require the payment of renewal fees to keep your utility model in vigor. In some cases, this is an annual renewal, in other countries it is five-yearly.

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