For IP professionals
This is the portal for professionals working in the field of intellectual property. Here you'll find direct access to all necessary resources.
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About us
ip-search is a patent search service provided by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in Bern. For over 30 years, we have been a reliable partner for customers seeking sophisticated patent and technology searches.
Our team comprises more than 50 experts with industry experience in all technical fields. They are also trained patent examiners and therefore skilled in correctly interpreting patent documents. They will carefully discuss your request with you and tailor the scope of the search, the depth of analysis and the preparation of the results exactly to your needs.
Each search we carry out is comprehensive, and we use professional search and analysis tools to search 300 patent and scientific literature databases. To manage the constantly growing volume of data, we also work with a semantic search based on artificial intelligence, which does not just take terms into account, but also their meaning. This increases the accuracy and efficiency of our services.
Our area of expertise encompasses freedom-to-operate searches, validity searches and landscape analyses. We can also carry out other patent-related searches or analyses of your choosing. Find out more about our services.
There is a huge amount of information available in patent documents. We are passionate about helping companies use this knowledge for progress and innovation.
Facts and figures
| Location | Bern, Switzerland. ip-search is a patent and technology search service provided by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, the centre of competence for patent, design and trade mark protection, indications of source, and copyright in Switzerland. |
| Search services | Freedom-to-operate search (FTO), validity search, subject search, strategic patent analysis, bibliographic search as well as technology monitoring and legal status monitoring. |
| Employees | Over 50 search experts with university degrees, most with a doctorate. Several years of experience in industry; trained in patent examination. |
| Language skills | Native languages: German, French, Italian, Bulgarian, English, Icelandic, Spanish, Russian, Romanian, Persian and Chinese. Foreign languages: Japanese, Arabic, Dutch, Swedish, Ukrainian, Turkish and Portuguese. |
| Experience | Around 2,000 searches carried out annually. The first online search was 30 years ago. |
| Databases | More than 300 databases of patent and scientific literature (European Patent Office search system, STN, Thomson Innovation, PatBase, GenomeQuest, SequenceBase, Reaxys). |
| Quality management | Quality control (the four-eyes principle) for the search objective, search strategy, document selection and search report. Defined processes for document retention, correspondence and the search procedure. Feedback system. |
| Data security | As a state institution, we are bound by confidentiality. Exchange of documents via electronic mail boxes (Data Exchange Platform DEP). Encrypted emails. |