(2) The Organization shall proceed to open and record applications and grant the
relevant certificates of registration in the order of receipt of the said applications.
Article 18
Examination of Applications
(1) Any application for a certificate of registration of a utility model shall undergo
examination to ensure that
(a) the creation in respect of which a certificate of registration is applied for is not
excluded from utility model protection under the provisions of Article 4 of this Annex;
(b) the claim or claims conform to the provisions of Article 11(d)(iv) of this Annex;
(c) the provisions of Article 12 of this Annex have been respected.
(2) A search shall also be conducted to ensure that
(a) at the time of the filing of the application for a certificate of registration, an
application for a certificate of registration filed earlier, or benefiting from a validly claimed
earlier priority and concerning the same invention, was not in the process of being granted;
(b) the invention
(i) is new,
(ii) is industrially applicable.
(3) The Administrative Council shall decide whether, and to what extent, the provisions
of paragraph (2)(a) and (b) above shall be applied; in particular, it may decide whether all or
some of the said provisions are applicable to one or several fields of technology covered by
the inventions; it shall determine such fields by reference to the International Patent
Classification.
(4) For international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the
Organization may avail itself of the provisions of Articles 20 and 36 of the said Treaty, which
relate to the international search report and the international preliminary examination report,
respectively.
Article 19
Grant
(1) Where the Organization finds that all the conditions for the grant of a certificate of
registration have been met and that a report has been drawn up under Article 18(2) above, it
shall grant the certificate of registration of the utility model applied for. In all cases, however,
the grant of certificates of registration of utility models shall be at the applicant’s own risk
and without any guarantee either as to the reality, novelty or merits of the invention or as to
the truth or accuracy of the description.
(2) The grant of the certificate of registration of the utility model shall take place on a
decision by the Director General of the Organization or on a decision by a staff member of the
Organization duly authorized to that end by the said Director General.
(3) Certificates of registration based on international applications under the Patent
Cooperation Treaty shall be granted in the same manner provided for in paragraph (2) above,
but with reference to the international publication provided for in the said Treaty.