The 57th final of the national Swiss Youth in Science competition took place on 22 April at the University of St Gallen (HSG). Christian Moser, who manages the IPI’s involvement, presented a special prize to each of the two winners. In the morning, visitors had the opportunity to view all the final-round projects and ask the young people about them. The varied nature of their work – from the...

Who knew IP could be such fun? On 23 November, the IPI conducted a challenge which saw participants develop an IP strategy by playing a game. The event took place as part of the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF). An invention by a fictional company was the starting point for an exciting journey centred on innovation and protection. Throughout the challenge, the participants were repeatedly presented...

Startup Nights took place on 3 and 4 November in Winterthur. At their stand, the team from the IPI answered numerous, and sometimes very specific questions, on trade marks, patents and designs. They also held a workshop for start-ups in which patent expert Christian Moser gave the participants an overview of IP rights, with a focus on patents. Among other things, he outlined the questions...

The Boldbrain Startup Challenge, Ticino’s accelerator for innovative business ideas, has announced the 20 teams participating in the fifth edition of the programme. A total of 128 applications were submitted, confirming the trend of previous years. The IPI is a co-sponsor and is offering all finalists a voucher for an Assisted Patent Search. A total of 128 applications were registered for this...

Pettastic has won the IPI’s IP Management Award 2022. The mini-enterprise engaged with the protection of intellectual property most intensively over the course of the Young Enterprise Switzerland (YES) one-year Company Programme. The company makes phone cases from recycled PET. Read the whole story in our blog

Swiss Youth in Science competitor Noa Sendlhofer has notched up a fantastic achievement. The 20-year-old ranked second in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair 2022 (ISEF) in Atlanta on 14 May. His project was on the ‘Development and Construction of a Low-Cost Six-Axis Robot Arm’. This recognition places the young Swiss...

The inventiveness of our young people is the focus of World IP Day today, 26 April 2022. They are the innovators, creators and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The IPI has been committed to youth innovation projects and raising young people’s awareness of intellectual property for years. Dorian Jouilé from France has successfully turned CO2 into a resource. Raquel Serrano Lledó explains in this video...

The Swiss Youth in Science National Competition is well underway. In three online workshops conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in January, participants learned about the role intellectual property plays in their project work. Read the full article on the blog.

To this day, country names such as Switzerland, Suisse and Schweiz are being registered as elements of a trade mark without any restriction. As a result, there are a large number of trade marks with country names that have nothing to do with the respective country. The dispute between the Icelandic state and the British supermarket chain ICELAND is therefore considered a model case. Swissness...

Inspiring projects relating to innovation will be presented at the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF) in Basel on 18 November. After being held virtually last year, the event will take place in person again in 2021. The conference highlights that innovation is the basis for success, especially in these exceptional times. The forum is an inspiring platform for exchanging ideas, networking and...

The IPI is very pleased to present the second online workshop of the Center for Intangible Property and Competition Law (CIPCO), in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI). After a successful first edition on the topic: Legal framework of intellectual property for AI - status quo and perspectives on June 11, 2021, we are repeating the experience by...

Content is constantly being posted and shared on the internet these days – whether on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. In doing so, however, other people’s photos are often being used without permission. Yet as easy as it is to post and share photos on these platforms, as easy as it is to infringe someone else’s copyright. The Copyright Act protects all photographs regardless of whether they have...

Is intellectual property protection becoming superfluous? Or will there soon be no need for patent or trade mark examiners? Following the prevalent views on the future role of artificial intelligence, one would have to answer such questions with a yes. A new series of events on the topic of ‘AI & IP’ attempts to provide a more differentiated picture, taking into account views from different...

On 23 June, Startup Days (SUD) will take place in the Kursaal in Bern. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) is sponsoring the event and its experts will be on hand to answer questions about protecting innovations. In a session with the world's most famous secret agent, event participants will also learn which specific aspects of protection are relevant for start-ups looking...

Due to the current situation, the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF) will not be held as a one-day conference this year, but will take place in virtual form from 17 - 19 November. True to its motto "It's Time To Innovate – NOW", giving up and cancelling is not an option for the leading Swiss innovation conference. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) is once again one of the...

Parallel to the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF) 2020, the special event ‘SEF.Wachstum’ for young enterprises and SMEs will take place once again on 2 September 2020 in the afternoon. The programme includes inspiring presentations, for example by international negotiation expert and coach Matthias Schranner, as well as a panel discussion with Caspar Coppetti, co-founder of ‘On’. Within ten years, the...

Following the successful networking lunch on the topic of IP strategies, which took place in October 2019 in Etoy, comes an additional event in German. At a virtual SEF4KMU networking lunch on 4 June 2020, attorney-at-law and Lawyer of the Year 2019 Bernard Volken will explain why an individual IP strategy is valuable for every innovative company. Seize the opportunity to participate in this...

The final of the Swiss Youth in Science national competition has been held virtually for the first time due to the current pandemic. Against all odds, 136 young researchers presented their work to the jury of experts, showing their research results and ideas via video call on 23 and 24 April. They were then honoured for their outstanding achievements on 25 April. The finalists, who came from...

In 2019, 1.2 billion Swiss francs were invested in private and public biotech companies according to the Swiss Biotech Report 2020. Gene therapy, artificial intelligence and the production of advanced biologicals have developed into complementary strengths in the past year. The Swiss biotech ecosystem has become even more diverse, write the authors of the report, while the life sciences branch is...

SMEs and start-ups should be given the best conditions to start well on the market. This is why the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and Switzerland Innovation are working together to connect universities and innovative companies at five locations in Switzerland. The exchange between science and industry via this comprehensive platform helps to develop ideas in such a way as...

In Bern, young people recently competed to reach the final of the national Swiss Youth in Science competition. In the process, they also learned about protecting their intellectual property.   On 18 January at the Neufeld grammar school in Bern, the foundations were laid for the final of the Swiss Youth in Science competition. The young people presented their competition entries in seven...

How do I develop a design strategy? At the Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) is holding a breakout session on this topic. Under the motto "Try", inspiring projects will be presented at the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF) in Basel on 21 November.  In addition to keynotes, participants can take part in breakout sessions and gain an insight...

Patent protection and IP strategies are only relevant for large companies that operate globally – or so think many leaders of SMEs and start-up. But think again! At the SEF4KMU networking lunch on 1 October 2019 in Etoy/VD, attorney-at-law and Lawyer of the Year 2019 Bernard Volken will show why even smaller companies should pay more attention to the topic of intellectual property. Would you...

On 23 May, companies from all over Switzerland gathered at the SEF.Wachstum (meaning ‘growth’) event. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) was present as a partner organisation with an exhibition stand. During the ‘SpeedDating4Growth’ part of the programme, experts from the IPI answered questions about protecting innovation. “Some attendees asked about current issues...

The finalists of the Swiss Youth in Science national competition have been chosen. 109 young people will gather in Rapperswil from 2 to 4 May to contest the final and present their projects. To participate in the biggest competition for young researchers in Switzerland, the enthusiastic innovators carried out research over several months. The result is a collection of creative inventions and...

The Swiss education landscape is about to be broadened with the launch of a new certified course on protecting intellectual property. This autumn, a CAS in IP Law will be offered at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). It was developed in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI).   The collaboration combines proven strengths to pursue a common goal...

Technologies and entrepreneurship are the focus of the  Start Summit in St. Gallen from 21 to 22 March. At a summit workshop, two IPI experts showed start-ups how they can protect their digital innovations. Interest in the topic was great with participants asking plenty of questions, which then led on to a lively discussion. How do I protect my software? Can I patent a program? When is an...

Online shopping is very popular among Swiss consumers. However, not everything delivered to Switzerland is necessarily legal. The 2018 Customs Statistics from the Federal Customs Administration (FCA) indicate an increase in the past year in consignments seized from both tourist and commercial traffic. However, the number of counterfeit goods ordered online and delivered by post or courier is also...

In January, participants in the Swiss Youth in Science national competition presented their entries to subject matter experts in Lugano, Bern and Lausanne, in the hope of qualifying for the final. The jury has since made its selection – 125 young people and 105 projects have reached the final, which will take place in Rapperswil from 2 - 4 May 2019. Investing in the future Given that their...

SMEs and start-ups should be provided with the best conditions to make their innovations economically viable. This is the incentive for a collaboration between the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. The Assisted Patent Search is at the heart of the collaboration between Innosuisse and the IPI. Recipients of Innosuisse funding can...

At Young Enterprise Switzerland (YES), some young people have started their own mini-company and in doing so, have learned how to create value by protecting their own creations. Following the initial phase of the programme, which began in August and dealt with founding the mini-company, start-up capital and the business plan, the mini-companies are now presenting their products at Christmas...

Researchers and start-ups presented a total of 36 innovations to potential investors, industry representatives and technology transfer experts at the Campus Biotech on 15 November. “We are very pleased with how the event went,” says Karolina Niewola, the person in charge of organising BioInnovation Day at the University of Geneva. With 182 participants, the event attracted similar interest as the...

The association YOUNG ENTREPRISES SWITZERLAND (YES), which is co-sponsored by the IPI, connects schools with the Swiss economy. At the annual national competition, school teams set up their own mini-company. There are awards for various aspects, which the teams can choose as the focus of their work. The IPI bestows the IP Management Award to the start-up that deals most convincingly with the topic...

Each year, the International Exhibition of Inventions brings together on average more than 700 exhibitors from 40 countries, with companies, inventors, organisations, as well as private and state institutes exhibiting their inventions. This year, the IPI will again be participating with a stand, so why not stop by and see us? If you take part in our competition by answering a few questions on...

In an age of rapidly growing populations, how can urban areas be sustainably developed? At the 7th International Swiss Talent Forum (ISTF) from 17 – 20 February 2018 in Thun, 70 talented youths from across Europe will search for solutions to the challenges of the urban areas of the future.  As a sponsor of the forum, which is organised by Swiss Youth in Science, the IPI pitches one of the...

On 16 November, the IPI will be featured again as the main partner at the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF) in the Congress Center Basel. Our IP experts at the IPI stand will answer questions regarding trade marks, patents and design.

The IPI will again present itself this year as a main partner at the Swiss Innovation Forum (SIF) from 16 November 2017 in Basel. The SIF provides a national platform for the promotion of innovation, creativity and design in Switzerland. Also taking place at this event will be the Swiss Technology Award and the MassChallenge Ceremony. You can find more information about the programme and both...