Patents and Utility Models

At PADIMA, we understand the value of innovation. Developing a new product or process requires significant investment in time, effort, and resources. Protecting your invention through patents or utility models is essential to make that investment profitable and secure your return. These legal tools grant you exclusive rights of use, strengthen your market position, and become key assets for the industrial, commercial, and economic exploitation of your innovation.

What are patents and utility models?

Patents and utility models are industrial property rights that protect inventions. Although both grant exclusivity, key differences exist between them:

• Patent: Protects inventions that involve an inventive step (a technical solution that is not obvious to an expert in the field) and are susceptible to industrial application. Patents provide protection for 20 years from the filing date, subject to the payment of maintenance fees.
• Utility model: Protects new inventions that give an object a particular shape, structure or configuration that offers a practical advantage or utility. It focuses on functional improvements, although compositions can also be protected by a utility model. Utility models remain in force for 10 years from the filing date, provided that maintenance fees are duly paid.

An invention can only be protected by a patent or utility model if it has not been publicly disclosed prior to the filing date and if it is industrially applicable—that is, capable of being manufactured or used in any type of industry.

PADIMA Invention Protection Services

At PADIMA, we guide you through every stage of this process, from identifying your invention to securing its protection, offering a comprehensive service that includes:

• State-of-the-art Reports: in-depth searches and analyses to determine the novelty and patentability of your invention by examining the current state of technology worldwide.
• Freedom to Operate (FTO) Reports: assess the risk of infringing third-party patents before launching your product on the market, ensuring legal certainty and minimising potential risks.
• Patents and Utility Models: register your inventions both nationally and internationally, fully adapting to the specific regulations of each country.
• Technology Watch: monitor third-party patent and utility model publications in order to detect competitor activity and anticipate innovation trends in your sector.