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Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham --- "Utility Models and Other Alternatives to Patents" [2007] ELECD 134; in Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham; Chow, Boey Kit (eds), "Innovation Without Patents" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Innovation Without Patents

Editor(s): Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham; Chow, Boey Kit

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845429591

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Utility Models and Other Alternatives to Patents

Author(s): Suthersanen, Uma; Dutfield, Graham

Number of pages: 46

Extract:

3. Utility models and other alternatives
to patents
Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield

3.1 WHAT ARE UTILITY MODELS?
The term `utility model' (UM) is a generic term which refers to subject matter
that hinges precariously between that protectable under patent law and sui generis
design law.1 The term is also somewhat equivocal. It is not an accepted or clearly
defined legal concept within the intellectual property paradigm. There is no global
consensus on the term's meaning, due ­ it has been suggested ­ to there being
`fundamentally different concepts from one country to another'.2 However, the
term is bandied about by legislators and jurists to refer to a second tier patent
system offering a cheap, no-examination protection3 regime for technical inven-
tions which would not usually fulfil the strict patentability criteria. This is an
important factor: UM protection is accorded, cheaply and quickly, to inventions
or innovations, many of which cannot gain protection under the patent regime.
If one examines national laws, one finds a plethora of terms used to mean
`utility model'. Thus, UM protection is referred to in Australia as `innovation
patent', in Malaysia as `utility innovation', in France as `utility certificate', and
in Belgium as `short term patent'. Some systems define utility models as incor-
poreal subject matter such as technical concepts or inventions or devices; while
others anchor their definitions to three-dimensional forms. Yet others offer a
utility model type of protection which, in actuality, is tantamount to patent
protection without examination ...