Need for speed? Exploring the relative importance of patents and utility models in Germany

Despite the wide use of two-tiered patent systems (patents and utility models), there is little empirical evidence about how often and what kind of firms use utility models to protect their intellectual property and how firms rank them relative to patents. We offer such an analysis using data from Germany. We find that larger firms are more likely to use both protection methods. Moreover, a short life cycle of products and services is associated with an increased likelihood to use utility models. The peculiarities and functioning of the German utility model system have important implications as it has been a benchmark for several second tier patent protection systems around the world.