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UTILITY MODELSUtility models concern new models which confer particular efficiency or ease of application or use to machines, machine parts, instruments or tools. This IP title is effective in a relatively small number of States (for instance, Germany) and concerns new items which may not be considered as inventive with regard to the prior art, but which have remarkable practical effects in terms of efficiency or ease of application or use.
As a consequence there is a natural contiguity between patents and utility models, and it is possible to file a patent application and a utility model application for the same item at the same time, being understood that the utility model application can be registered only if the patent application is not granted. Furthermore, it is possible to convert a patent application into a utility model application, and vice versa.
A utility model lasts at most 10 years, shared into two 5-year periods. Its rules largely coincide with the rules concerning patents, according to Article 86 of the Industrial Property Code.
DESIGNS AND MODELS
Designs and models concern the outward appearance of the structure or of the materials of a product, or its ornamentation. As a consequence they can protect two-dimensional elements (a drawing, the weave of a fabric) or three-dimensional elements (the shape of a product). In order to be registered a design or model must comply with the following requirements:
1) novelty: no identical design or model disclosed before the application date;
2) individual character: the overall impression caused by the model or design in informed users must differ from the overall impression caused by the models or designs which were disclosed before the application date;
3) lawfulness: not contrary to public order or morality.
In order to distinguish models and designs from other kinds or protection it is important to point out that they must neither concern features which are solely dictated by ther technical function, nor features which have the only purpose to permit the product to which the design is applied to be connected to or placed in, around or against another product.
A design application may concern more models or designs together, on condition that they all belong to the same class or the International Design Classification (the so-called Locarno Classification). A registered design lasts at most 25 years, shared into 5-year periods, but models and designs which are deemed to have a creative character and an artistic value are also covered by Italian Copyright Law, and in that case they last 70 years after the death or their author.
An Italian design application can be extended abroad within 6 months of its filing date, by filing it with the concerned foreign Patent Offices. It is also possible to file an International or Community Design application instead of an Italian application. The Registered Community Design (RCD) is managed by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) based in Alicante, and grants to its owner an exclusive rights in the 27 member States of the European Union, at an affordable cost and without any substantial examination. A RCD lasts at most 25 years shared into 5-year periods. The European Union provides also for protection or Unregistered Community Designs: in this case protection is not a consequence of an application, but of simple disclosure of the design or model. An Unregistered Community Design lasts at most 3 years counted from its first disclosure.
Europatent-Euromark S.r.l. has been advising its clients since 1988 with regard to Italian, Community, International and foreign model and design applications, thanks to its experience in the IP field and to a consolidated network of foreign associates.
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