Protection of utility models in the single market. Green paper

In adopting the report by Mr Julio Anoveros TRIAS DE BES (PPE, E), Parliament welcomed the Commission's Green Paper and considered that the utility model is an appropriate form of protection, especially for SMUs that in many cases cannot afford the long and costly procedure of patenting. It called for a regulation laying down rules for the European utility model. It believed that the future regulation governing utility models should allow for a lower level of inventiveness than patents. Finally, it considered that it would be preferable to have a system in which a utility model can be defined by reference to a structure, form or configuration, which would imply excluding procedures and substances from its scope. �