2025

Heikkilä, Jussi T. S.

Empirical evidence on the functioning of utility model (UM) systems is scarce compared to patent systems. This chapter applies the framework introduced by Heikkilä (2023a) to the empirical analysis of the Finnish UM system and its interaction with the Finnish patent system. The findings suggest that the UM system has promoted flexibility and inclusiveness of the Finnish patent system. There are systematic differences between Finnish UMs and patents: 1) UMs are members of smaller patent families, 2) UMs have smaller inventor teams, 3) grant lags of UMs are significantly shorter and 4) both Finnish patents and UMs receive few citations, but UMs receive systematically less. The aforementioned average differences between Finnish patents and UMs were much larger before Finland joined the European Patent Convention in 1996 which emphasizes the need to consider European integration and the evolution of European IPR institutions when evaluating UM systems.