Utility model patent regimes around the world and over time: Strictness, usage, and economic development
Article
Prud'homme, D, Hu, Z, He, W et al. (2026). Utility model patent regimes around the world and over time: Strictness, usage, and economic development
. RESEARCH POLICY, 55(8), 10.1016/j.respol.2026.105517
Prud'homme, D, Hu, Z, He, W et al. (2026). Utility model patent regimes around the world and over time: Strictness, usage, and economic development
. RESEARCH POLICY, 55(8), 10.1016/j.respol.2026.105517
Utility model (UM) regimes offer faster and cheaper protection for incremental inventions than conventional patent regimes. However, despite their presence in many economies, we know little about how they vary or how those differences evolve and affect UM usage over time. This study examines these patterns across 75 economies from 1980 to 2020. We construct novel indices capturing UM regime “strictness”—the difficulty of obtaining UMs due to legal standards for novelty, inventiveness, and examination—distinct from UM regime “strength,” which reflects appropriability once rights are granted. We find that, regardless of UM regime strength, developing economies adopt less strict UM regimes, whereas developed economies impose stricter ones. This likely reflects greater concern in developed economies about limiting proliferation of IP rights for less technologically sophisticated inventions. Most importantly, UM regime strictness impacts UM usage. In developing economies, stricter regimes suppress filings, whereas in developed economies, filings follow an inverted U-shaped pattern, peaking at moderate levels of strictness. This suggests that UMs serve different functions across economic development stages: in developing economies, they support IPR learning and provide accessible, low-cost protection for less technologically sophisticated inventions; in developed economies, stricter regimes balance limiting the proliferation of such rights with preserving the accessibility and speed advantages that distinguish UMs from patents. Supplementary analyses show that UM filings are jointly impacted by interactions between UM strictness and patent regime strength. We discuss implications for policymakers designing UM regimes tailored to national contexts.
