Rights for utility model are protected by the Law and confirmed by a patent. Only apparatuses are statutory regarded as utility models. Neither methods, preparations, microorganism strains nor a use thereof are protected by utility models.
Only two conditions of patentability are required for utility models - novelty and industrial applicability. The state of art for considering novelty of a utility model shall in difference with inventions include only information on means serving the same purpose as the claimed model. In distinctiveness from publications, a public use of these means anticipates novelty only if such use has occurred on Russian Federation territory but not outside.
A patent for a utility model is valid during five years from the application filing date and can be extended by the Patent Office for three additional years upon a petition of the patent assignee. An examination on conforming a utility model to the conditions of protectability is not conducted by the Patent Office. A patent is granted at the Applicant's responsibility without a guarantee of its validity.
Conversion of an application for utility model into an application for invention is possible either until a decision on grant of utility model patent is issued or until all statutory possibilities to appeal against a decision on refusal to grant a utility model patent are exhausted.
An application for invention can be converted into an application for utility model before publication of information on the application for invention.
The exclusive right arising from a patent for utility model to the extent of its legal effect is not anyhow distinct from a patent for invention.