Filing of Utility Model Applications

The most significant differences between patents and utility models emerge in the acquisition phase of industrial property rights. While utility models are basically merely registered by the German Patent and Trademark Office, patents represent fully examined industrial property rights. For this reason, utility models are sometimes likewise referred to as "register patents".

Filing of an application with the German Patent and Trademark Office
A requirement for conferral of protection on the utility model forms the filing of an application together with a request for registration of a utility model precisely in the same manner as in the case of patents. In addition, the application shall contain a suitable set of claims, a description of the invention and, where appropriate, drawings illustrating the subject matter of the invention. Thus, the documents required for a utility model application are basically identical to the documents required for a patent application. Consequently, the costs for preparing a utility model application are generally almost identical to the costs involved in preparing a patent application. The invention should be described as accurately as possible and in great detail to enable a Patent Attorney to elaborate a utility model application. In order to make it easier for the inventor to devise the description of the invention, an invention check list may be used.

Examination of the utility model by the German Patent and Trademark Office
After receipt of a utility model application, the German Patent and Trademark Office in a first step reviews the subject matter for which protection is sought in order to determine whether the subject matter is eligible for conferral of protection by means of a utility model. All of the claims that are ineligible for conferral of protection by means of a utility model, especially process claims, are excluded from registration by way of said examination. The German Patent and Trademark Office likewise reviews certain formal requirements, such as type size and margins on the drawing pages, as prescribed according to the Utility Model Application Regulations. Examination of the substantive protection requirements, i. e. in particular examination of novelty and inventive step, is not performed by the German Patent and Trademark Office prior to registration of the utility model. The respective process prior to registration of a utility model is thus much shorter than the process prior to the grant of a patent and is terminated, as a rule, within only a few months. Hence, it is possible to have a utility model derived from a pending patent application, enabling action to be taken against any potential infringer well before the grant of a patent.

Registration of utility models
When the utility model application has been examined by the Utility Model Division at the German Patent and Trademark Office, the utility model is entered into the Utility Model Register maintained by the German Patent and Trademark Office and the utility model is published. With registration, the utility model proprietor is being conferred a fully enforceable industrial property right and may assert claims for injunctive relief or compensation against potential infringers. The claims deriving from a utility model are identical to those derived from a patent, so that there are no differences between patent and utility models as regards validity.