PATENT VS UTILITY MODEL – SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

Patent attorneys often help clients to resolve doubts on the right direction of protection for their products or solutions. Thanks to the knowledge and experience of experts from our Gdańsk law and patent office, we are able to help in choosing the best solution for an each entrepreneur. However, a good basis for considering the company’s industrial property protection strategy is to learn about the similarities and differences of specific types of rights – in this article we will present the regulations of patents and utility models.

WHAT IS PROTECTED BY PATENTS AND UTILITY MODELS?

A patent is an exclusive right granted to inventions. A patent is granted if the invention is new, does not belong to the state of the technology and it possible to use the invention in industrial way. In any event, no patent is granted for inventions that would be contrary to public order, are relating to a variety of plants or animals, or to purely biological methods of animal breeding, or to a method of treating humans. It should be noted that there is no exemption of medicaments from patent regulation.

A utility model is granted for a new and suitable for industrial application solution of a technical nature, concerning the shape or structure of an object with a permanent form or an object consisting of permanently connected parts in a permanent form.

The difference between the two rights comes down to the fact that in the case of a patent, the very idea and the way of solving a technical problem are most important, while in the case of a utility model, the materialized form of an object with a specific shape or structure is the fundamental case.

 CAN ONE SELL THE RIGHT TO A PATENT AND UTILITY MODEL?

Each of the described industrial property rights can be sold, donated or licensed to someone else. One of the most interesting differences between these rights is that a patent may be subject to a compulsory license, and the regulation of utility models does not provide for such a possibility. Currently, however, this difference is of purely theoretical importance, because in practice a compulsory license for a Polish invention has not yet been granted.

 WHAT’S THE COMPLETE COST OF A PATENT AND UTILITY MODEL?

The current cost of a patent, however including only official costs (application fee and fees for all protection periods), amounts to at least 15,130 zloty. Similarly, the cost of a utility model is 3,050 zloty. To the above-mentioned costs, it is necessary to add fees for the services of a patent attorney, but the difference in the costs of both rights is undoubtedly significant.