Comparative Study on Utility Models among JPO, KIPO and SIPO

November 2012

Japan Patent Office

At the Eleventh Trilateral Policy Dialogue Meeting among the JPO, KIPO and SIPO, held in December 2011, the three Offices agreed to conduct exchanges of opinion on the utility model systems among the Offices, in order to deepen mutual understanding of the utility model systems that are possessed only by the JPO, KIPO and SIPO out of the Five IP Offices (the JPO, USPTO, EPO, SIPO and KIPO), in terms of characteristics and differences in each country’s system. Following this agreement, the JPO, KIPO and SIPO jointly conducted a comparative study on the utility model systems at the Joint Experts Group for Patent Examination (JEGPE).

As the result, the three Offices created a “JP-CN-KR Comparative Table of the Utility Model protection” by putting together the characteristics of each Office’s utility model system as well as its related meanings in the form of contrast. The Comparative Table was approved at the Twelfth Trilateral Policy Dialogue Meeting held in November 2012, and it is now officially released.

This report is considered useful in understanding differences and ways of thinking of each utility model system of the JPO, KIPO and SIPO. We hope it is useful for you.

[Last updated 16 February 2024]