In German and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

s, the ''Gebrauchsmuster'' (GebrM), also known as German utility model or Austrian utility model, is a

-like,

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

right protecting inventions. The Gebrauchsmuster is slightly different from the patent. It mainly differs from the patent in that processes and methods cannot be protected by a Gebrauchsmuster, only products can. Furthermore, the

term Term may refer to: * Terminology, or term, a noun or compound word used in a specific context, in particular: **Technical term, part of the specialized vocabulary of a particular field, specifically: ***Scientific terminology, terms used by scient ...

of a Gebrauchsmuster, that is its maximum lifetime, is 10 years from the date of registration. In contrast, a patent has usually a term of 20 years from the date of filing of the application.

Germany

The German

utility model A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. This type of right is available in many countries but, notably, not in the United States, United Kingdom or Canada. Although a utility model is similar to a patent ...

has some interesting characteristics, when compared to the German patent or to the European patent designating Germany: *

Prior art Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria ...

considered for examining

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

and

inventive step The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive—i.e., non-obvious—in order to be patented. In other words, " henon ...

is somewhat more limited: ** Oral disclosures are not taken into account, only written disclosures are taken into account; ** Public prior use outside Germany is not taken into account; ** A six-month grace period before the priority date is provided for written disclosures or prior public use made by applicants or their predecessors in title. * They are not substantially examined. Only registration is sufficient to obtain a utility model. German utility models are made available to the public directly when they are registered (''Eintragungstag'', the date of entry of the German utility model in the register of utility models of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA)), i.e. before the publication date (''Bekanntmachung''):T 0355/07 () of 28.11.2008
EPO Board of Appeal Decision, Reasons 3."(...) German utility models ("Gebrauchsmuster") are already publicly available as of their date of entry in the Register of utility models ("Eintragungstag"), which precedes the date of announcement in the Patent Bulletin ("Bekanntmachung im Patentblatt")." in ("State of the art", "General remarks and definition"). In contrast, patents are made available to the public 18 months after the filing date, unless the applicant requests early publication. The German ''Gebrauchsmuster'' is regulated by German Gebrauchsmuster Act (in German: ''Gebrauchsmustergesetz'') and German Gebrauchsmuster Ordinance (in German: ''Verordnung zur Ausführung des Gebrauchsmustergesetzes'').

Austria

The

n utility model is similar to the German utility model. The main differences are: * A search report is carried out within 6 to 8 months. No additional searching fee is required. * The range of protection is broader than the German utility model. There is additional protection for: ** Logic

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

for

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

** Processes ** Therapy methods for animals

Germany

Austria

See also