A utility model protects a practical improvement — a new shape, structure or arrangement that simply works better — with a lower threshold, a faster grant and a lower cost than a patent. For incremental innovation it is often the right call.
A utility model, sometimes called a petty patent or short-term patent, protects a technical improvement that is new and industrially applicable but may not clear the inventive-step bar a full patent demands. The trade-off is a shorter term of protection.
For a great many products — tools, containers, mechanisms, agricultural implements, devices adapted to local conditions — the utility model is the faster and more economical right, and it is enforceable against copying in the same way.
COEUR IP advises on which right to pursue before anything is filed, prepares and files the application, carries it through prosecution to grant, and enforces the right that results. Where circumstances change, we also advise on converting between a patent application and a utility model.
Tell us what you have built and where you trade. We will tell you which protection is worth paying for, which is not, and what it costs.
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