Dear reader
Welcome to this joint edition of our “Legal Information” (no. 5/2022) and Patents and Designs (no. 2022/11) newsletters. We hope you find it useful.
The Federal Council wants to strengthen the Swiss patent
The legislative process initiated in March 2019 by the Hefti Motion has taken another step forward: today, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on the partial revision of the Patents Act for submission to Parliament. The Patents Act is to be adapted to international standards and the Swiss patent system is to be made more attractive to SMEs and individual inventors, in particular. The following are the main points of the draft act:
- The much-valued partially examined patent is to remain in place as a low-cost and easily obtainable IP right.
- However, in future, an obligatory search on the state of the art will be part of the patent examination procedure. This will increase transparency and legal certainty for applicants and third parties.
- In addition, applicants will in future have the option of requesting a full examination of their patent in Switzerland. This will offer them an equivalent alternative to the European patent.
- Other proposed changes include a streamlined appeal procedure and the option of using documents in English in the patent granting procedure.
Media release
Further information on our website
Yours faithfully
Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property
Felix Addor, Deputy Director General
Alban Fischer, Vice Director General
