Difference between Patent and Utility Model

If you have heard of these two terms, but you are still wondering which is the option that interests you most, here we are going to tell you everything you need to know to differentiate a patent from a utility model.

Difference Patents and utility model

What is a utility model?

Before fully defining the concept of utility model, let’s remember what a patent is. According to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), a patent is an Industrial Property title that gives the holder the sole power, vis-à-vis third parties, to exploit and profit from his invention for a period of time.

This same authority defines the utility model as the protection of inventions of a lower level than the patent, consisting of technological solutions, but restricted to products, apparatus or technical devices, excluding procedures.

 

What requirements must a utility model meet?

The utility model and the patent share a series of conditions that must be met in order to be patentable, although it is true that, in the case of the utility model, these must be met to a lesser degree:

  • Novelty: an invention is considered to be new when it is not previously registered in the state of the art. This term gives name to the procedure that is carried out to find out all the inventions similar to the idea that we have developed, which decides or not the novelty of an invention.
  • Inventive step: which refers to the fact that a given invention is not obvious to a person skilled in the art, i.e., if this person would have reached the same conclusion as the inventor.
  • Industrial application: that the invention can be manufactured and used in any kind of industry.

 

Differences

  • The protection of a utility model is only granted for product inventions; on the other hand, a patent grants protection for product and process inventions.
  • The utility model protects inventions that consist of a useful and novel improvement of something already existing, and that have industrial application.
  • The period of protection of the utility model is 10 years, while patent protection lasts 20 years.
  • The process of granting a utility model by the SPTO is faster, simpler and cheaper than in the case of a patent.
  • The utility model can be protected internationally, by registration in other countries or by European Patent. But in organizations or countries where the figure of the Utility Model is not recognized, it will have to be registered as a Patent.

 

Is better a patent or a utility model?

The decision for one or the other form of protection will always depend on the type of invention, although if an idea has been developed to a sufficiently high standard, patent protection will always be better.

Utility models are considered especially suitable for SMEs that want to make improvements to existing products, or to adapt such products to their needs.

 

At Lidermark we offer you all the advice and support you need to register your inventions in the safest and most efficient way.