Although the requirements for acquiring them are similar, they are less stringent for utility models, so these are used to protect inventions with a lower inventive threshold than patents. In practice, utility model protection is used for lesser innovations that perhaps do not meet patentability criteria.
In most countries where utility model protection is available, patent offices do not examine the background to such applications prior to registration. This means that the registration process is often significantly simpler and faster, and on average takes about six months.
The duration of the protection for utility models is also shorter than for patents and varies from country to country.In Spain a utility model has a duration of 10 years, compared to 20 years for a patent.
The simplicity of the process and the shorter duration mean that it is cheaper to obtain and maintain utility models.
Spanish law states that “new inventions that imply an inventive step and which give an object a configuration, structure or constitution from which an appreciable practical advantage can be obtained for its use or production shall be eligible for protection as utility models”.
However, it is important to emphasise that the law expressly states that chemical products, foodstuffs and procedures cannot be protected by utility models. For example, a new type of anti-fungal paint cannot be protected as a utility model, but the brush used to apply it can be.
Utility models are considered particularly suitable for SMEs that make "lesser" improvements to existing products or that adapt these products.
In general utility models are improvements to appliances or tools which are already known, i.e. mechanical inventions.
