Difference between Patent and Utility Model

By Intepat Team

Published on 17 April 2016

3 min read

Patents may be granted by national patent offices or by regional offices that work for a number of countries, such as the ARIPO, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, and Turkey. The patent owner has the right to protect his invention for a period limited to the duration of the patent term (which is usually 20 years from the filing date).

In several countries, inventions are protectable through registration under the name of ‘utility model,’ which may also be called ‘short-term patent,’ ‘petty patent,’ ‘innovation patent,’ and ‘incremental innovation. The invention standard under the utility model is lowered to an ‘innovative step.’ For example, an innovation or a utility model can use products or inventions that have already been invented in a new and innovative way to solve a particular problem.

Patent Vs. Utility Patent:

The following table provides the difference between a patent and a utility patent.

Patent	Utility Model
Invention with a novel, inventive step and industrial application can be protected.	The invention which has mainly a novelty but is less or absents in inventive steps can be protected.
All new inventions or substantial improvement inventions can be protected.	All marginal improvement inventions can be protected.
The term of protection is 20 years from the date of patent filing.	The term of protection is between 7 and 10 years from the filing date.
The patent cost to obtain and maintain the patent is expensive.	The cost to obtain and maintain the utility model is cheaper.
It requires substantive examination of the patent application to validate patentability.	It does not require a substantive examination procedure, as it does not require the inventive step.
A longer time [2 to 5 years] is required to obtain a patent.	Obtain Utility model protection; it requires less time, between 6 months to 1 year.
Patent protection is available in almost all major countries.	Utility model protection is available only in some countries based on technology.
Patent protection is actively used	Utility model protection is less actively used.
Conversion of the patent into the utility model is always possible.	Conversion of the utility model into a patent is possible under certain circumstances.

Therefore, Indian companies and startups who wish to protect their innovation in the countries mentioned above may seek to safeguard under the utility model and get patent grants quickly and economically. You can visit the link to learn more about how to protect inventions under utility models.