What you can protect as a utility model
An invention which is new, which is based on an inventive step and which is industrially applicable can be protected as a utility model. Please note that the invention must be technical.
Apparatus invention can be protected as utility models, but not inventions which are excluded from utility model protection under the Utility Model Act (GebrMG). These include process inventions, measuring procedures, teaching methods, construction plans, patterns, scientific theories, mathematical methods as well as biotechnological inventions, plant varieties and animal species, to name but a few.
Filing a utility model:The quick protection of an unexamined "pseudo right"
The registration of a utility model is often completed within about two months. The reason for this is that the utility model is only checked for the existence of formal requirements during the registration procedure. The so-called substantive requirements are not examined during the registration procedure for a utility model. These material or substantive requirements for a utility model include that the invention applied for
This lack of substantive examination makes the registered utility model a “pseudo-protection right”, so that the enforcement of claims arising from a utility model against third parties must be considered very critically, as the objection of lack of protectability in utility model infringement proceedings and a request for cancellation as a counter-attack by the third party are to be expected.
This means that the applicant for a utility model should make sure on his own responsibility before filing the application by means of a careful search that the requirements for an effective property right are actually met.