The Economic Efficacy of Utility Model Protection

The Economic Efficacy of Utility Model Protection
Uma Suthersanen

ISBN 9789041199263
Kluwer Law International

The term “utility model” is somewhat equivocal. It is not an accepted nor clearly defined legal concept within the intellectual property paradigm. There is no global acceptance of the term due to, it has been suggested, there being “fundamentally different concepts from one country to another”. The term has often been bandied about by commentators and legislators as a reference to a second tier patent system, ostensibly offering a cheap, no-examination protection regime for technical inventions which would not usually fulfil the strict patentability criteria. This is an important factor: utility model protection is accorded, cheaply and quickly, to inventions or innovations which, often, may not be able to gain protection under the patent regime.