Legal protection of utility models is granted through registration with the Patent Office. The registration shall have effect against third parties from the date of publication in the official bulletin of the Patent Office.

As is the case with patents, they are registered useful modelswhich are novel (if not part of the state of the art), industrially applicable (i.e. the subject matter of which can be produced or reused in any branch of industry and agriculture) and have an inventive step (i.e. if a person of ordinary skill in the art cannot readily carry it out on the basis of the state of the art).

The term of the utility model registration shall be 4 years from the date of filing of the application. It may be extended for 2 consecutive periods of 3 years each. The total term of protection may not exceed 10 years from the filing date of the application.