Utility model application

Overview

In Finland, utility model applications are filed with the National Board of Patents and Registration (NBPR). The Act on Utility Model Rights, the Decree on Utility Model Rights and the Utility Models Instructions define the way in which an application is to be drafted. For further details, see also the Utility Model Guide (in Finnish and Swedish only). When you draft an application, you should study patent and utility model publications from the same field. Patent publications you will find for example in the Espacenet database on the Internet.

Do draft a utility model application with care, because you cannot add anything to it after the filing date. Claims can be modified while they are being processed, but the information needed in the modification must be found in the text of the application, either in the description or the original claims.

In which language

An applicant domiciled in Finland can draft the application either in Finnish or Swedish. The claims have to be filed both in Finnish and Swedish.

The application may also be filed in some other language and it can be accorded a filing date, but it will not be examined before it has been translated into Finnish or Swedish.

Parts of the application

For an application you will need a form, which is available on this website in Finnish and in Swedish. The form has to be accompanied by the following items:

• a description of the invention, preferably with a drawing, if the invention can be illustrated by the drawing
• instead of drawings, you can also submit a photograph of the invention
• claims.

File one copy of each document.

Further, the following documents must be given:

• an assignment by which the inventor transfers his or her right to the invention to the applicant
• a power of attorney, if the applicant has appointed a representative.

Utility model applications cannot be filed merely by submitting a drawing or by filling in the form.

Description of the invention

The description must be sufficiently detailed to enable a person skilled in the art to carry out the invention on the basis of it. As for patents, the invention that will be protected by a utility model is always a solution to an existing technical problem.

Right from the beginning, the description has to include all details that are necessary to make the invention understandable; new details cannot be added after the filing date. Only essential clarifications can be added to the application during the processing.

A concise and factual title of the invention is used as the heading of the description. The title is also repeated at the beginning of the claims.

Regarding its content, the description is divided into a general and specific part. In the beginning of the general part, the field of use of the invention is presented and then an account is given of other similar products or devices or closely related solutions which the applicant know about, and what defects they have. The invention is then described in general and how it removes the disadvantages of known solutions. In this case, the means and solutions, that are characteristic of the invention and necessary in order to reach the goal of the invention and to solve the problem, are presented in exactly the same way as in the claims or by referring to characterising parts in the claims.

At the beginning of the specific part in the description, a list of pictures included in the application is added. The specific part must give at least one detailed example where not less than one possible way of how to implement an inventive idea is presented. You can of course give more than only one example.

Pictures

The pictures have to show all the details in the invention that are essential for the understanding of the description. The details are marked with reference signs.

If the pictures are drawings, the drawing have to be made on a paper of A4 size, like other elements of the application. The pictures can also be black and white reproducible photographs, if they clearly show the invention. No explanatory text is placed in the pictures; instead the parts of the invention are marked with reference signs. These signs are used in the description after the words describing the parts of the invention.

Claims

The claims are the most important part of the application, because they determine what the utility model right has been granted to, in other words, what the scope of protection of the utility model is. The description and pictures are only used to help others to understand and interpret the claims.

Several claims can be used in a utility model application, and the claims can concern several inventions that are dependent on each others.

The claim is divided into two parts: the preamble and the characterising part that are separated from each other by the words “characterised in that” or some similar expression. The title of the invention is written at the beginning of the preamble. The preamble presents the features of the invention that are known from before; the characterising part presents its new features.

Request to postpone registration

If you wish to postpone the registration no more than 15 months from the filing or priority date, you have to request that as early as in your utility model application and at the same time pay a postponement fee. A request for postponement made later will not be accepted.

The utility model application become public as soon as it is registered. By postponing the registration you can delay the making available to the public of the application, which in certain situations can be an advantage to the applicant.

Where to send the application

The utility model application can be either mailed to the address

National Board of Patents and Registration
P.O.Box 1160
FI-00101 Helsinki

or brought to the NBPR Client Service, address Arkadiankatu 6 A, during office hours 8.00 to 16.15.

An application may also be filed by fax, but the original documents shall be mailed afterwards. The fax number is +358 (0)9 6939 5328. Applications sent to that number before 24.00 hrs are also deemed as being received on the day when they were sent, including weekends and holidays.

Applications and other documents can no longer be delivered into the letterbox next to the NBPR main entrance, as the letterbox is no longer in use.

Application fee payable in the beginning of the procedure

The application will not be given a filing date until an application fee has been paid. The fee will not be refunded if the application does not lead to registration. The fee is paid into NBPR’s bank account, see price list.