Under the theme ‘IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity’, World Intellectual Property Day 2024 is addressing global challenges and highlighting the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To mark the event, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) has published new information about IP and sustainable development on its website....

The final vote on the partial revision of the Patents Act was held in Parliament on 15 March 2024. The National Council approved the bill by 191 to 0 votes with 0 abstentions and the Council of States approved it by 44 to 0 votes with 0 abstentions. If no referendum takes place, the Federal Council will decide on the commencement of the Act. At the same time, preparations are already being...

Find out what the IPI was working on in the 2022/23 business year in our new annual report. Take a look back at 20 years in the Patent Division in our extensive interview with Alban Fischer. And leaf through the photos to discover the many commitments the IPI maintains in line with its slogan ‘We foster innovation’. We hope you enjoy reading it!

“The continued development of the Lisbon System is of great importance for trade mark holders throughout the world, as it provides information on the names that are protected as GIs.” Catherine Chammartin, Director General of the IPI, underlined the importance of the Lisbon System for the international protection of geographical indications in a transparent and inclusive manner. Meanwhile the...

At its meeting on 22 November 2023, the Federal Council elected Daniela Marino as a new member of the Institute Council. It thus adopted the proposal of the General Secretariat of the FDJP. Additionally, it re-elected the eight existing members of the Institute Council. Due to the restriction on periods in office, Beatrice Renggli was re-elected until 28 February 2025 and Evelyn Zwick until 28...

Amidst the Black Friday and Christmas season, STOP PIRACY shares crucial advice to distinguish reliable online shops from scams. The Federal Customs and Border Protection Agency recorded a concerning 30% increase in counterfeit goods online in 2022. With clear pointers such as correct web addresses, complete legal information, reviews, verification of the authenticity of quality labels, return...

The general meeting of STOP PIRACY, the Swiss anti-counterfeiting and piracy platform, took place on 15 September at the company USM in Münsigen. The attendees unanimously elected Marc Wullschleger as the new president. He replaces Anastasia Li-Treyer, who announced her resignation last year after a lengthy period in office. Marc Wullschleger is a trade mark attorney at Isler & Pedrazzini AG,...

Our popular online services for trade marks have been expanded. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) now also offers databases for all IP rights as well as various digital services to make it easier for customers to manage their IP rights and pay fees. Here's an overview of the new online services. New databases for patents, designs and supplementary protection...

At its meeting on 11 January 2023, the Federal Council elected Stefan Hostettler Fischer as Secretary General of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) and member of the Institute Council of the IPI, with effect from 1 February 2023. In the role of Secretary General of the FDJP and member of the Institute Council, he succeeds Barbara Hübscher Schmuki, the new Secretary General...

Find out what the IPI was working on in the 2021/22 business year in our new annual report. Go behind the scenes of the most recent IP right in the big interview with ‘Mr Design’, and solve our picture clues based on classic films. We hope you enjoy reading it!

On 18 November 2022, a technical meeting on voluntary licensing took place in Bern between the Swiss Confederation, Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), the Swiss pharmaceutical sector and representatives from international organisations. The event was facilitated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The aim was to bring...

A new study released today by the European Patent Office (EPO) finds that 13.2% of inventors in Europe are women. The study, the first of its kind to be published by the EPO, is based on the percentage of women inventors named in all patent applications to the EPO from 1978 until 2019. It highlights that while the women inventor rate in Europe has been rising in recent decades (up from only 2% in...

Switzerland is the 2022 innovation world champion The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 ranks Switzerland as the most innovative country in the world for the twelfth successive year. The index covers 130 countries. Ranking 1. Switzerland (number one in 2021) 2. USA (3) 3. Sweden (2) 4. UK (4) 5. Netherlands (6) 6. South Korea (5) 7. Singapore (8) 8. Germany (10) 9. Finland (7) 10....

The IPI has assisted applicants and proprietors of trade marks with professional trade mark searches for over 60 years. It has thus given clients a reliable basis for taking decisions about trade mark protection. Nowadays, people who want to search for trade marks or monitor the market are increasingly doing so themselves using free online databases. As a result, the demand for trade mark...

On 18 May 2022, the Federal Council adopted the strategic objectives for the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) for the years 2022 to 2026. To boost innovation and competitiveness, the IPI has been tasked with promoting appropriate, economically viable protection of intellectual property in Switzerland in future too. For further information: Federal Council's media release...

Join us for our next IP conference on the afternoon of 7 June (CET). The topic is industrial data sharing, with the following top speakers: Prof. Alain Strowel, UCLouvain CRIDES & Université Saint-Louis, Brussels Prof. Christiane Wendehorst, Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna Prof. Dev Gangjee, Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (OIPRC),...

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...

Following positive experiences with earlier events of this type in 2016 (“watch technology”), 2017 (“pharmaceuticals”) and 2019 (“computer implemented inventions”), the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and the European Patent Office are pleased to invite you to a public seminar on patenting issues in the area of “Green Tech”, with particular focus on “battery storage” and on...

The European Patent Office (EPO) received 188 600 applications in 2021, up 4.5% on the previous year and the highest number to date. The EPO’s Patent Index 2021, published today, shows that patent filings rebounded significantly last year after a slight dip in 2020 (-0.6%). The number of patent applications – an early indicator of companies’ investments in research and development – increased in...

The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) wishes to enable its clients to register, manage and pay for trade marks, patents and designs online quickly and easily. To this end, it is gradually introducing new online services. A new platform is now available that allows trade mark applicants and holders to apply for protection in more than 120 countries. Thanks to the extension...

Swiss companies demonstrated their innovative spirit once again during the second year of the pandemic. More trade mark applications were filed in 2021 than in the previous year. Additionally, around 1,000 innovators carried out a search with the IPI to examine their inventions in detail. More trade mark applications are filed every year in Switzerland. This upward trend also continued during...

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.

The Gadient brothers produce everyday objects from wood. They have protected some of their sophisticated designs and were surprised by how simple the filing process was. The next products are already in the pipeline. Read the full story of the Gadients in our blog. Enjoy reading!

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 European Patent Office (EPO) is hosting the first-ever digital edition of the European Inventor Award ceremony on Thursday, 17 June, which viewers will be able to watch at inventoraward.org. The ceremony, an important event in the science and innovation calendar, will give audiences around the globe an opportunity to learn about outstanding inventors from Europe and beyond who have devised...

From 1 July 2021, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) will administer patents and designs, alongside trade marks, in the new electronic IP rights administration system. This successfully concludes a project which has been running for several years and which brings a lot of changes for the IPI and the day-to-day work of its employees. The project aimed not only to replace...

While the spotlight was on Covid-related projects (such as cloning of the virus, diagnostic development or vaccine production) Switzerland and Swiss biotech companies did not lose sight of other unmet medical needs and continued to invest heavily to expand their R&D and manufacturing infrastructure. Investors contributed new funds at record levels to advance the promising pipeline of the Swiss...

The Director General of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) will prepare the business of the Administrative Council in this eight-member body for the next three years. The Council supervises the activities of the European Patent Office. The 38 member states of the EPO, which has its headquarters in Munich, include all EU states as well as Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Buying counterfeits costs consumers huge sums of money. The corresponding trade damages the good reputation of Swiss companies and reduces their turnover by billions each year. As a result, in 2018, Switzerland forfeited over 10,000 jobs. For the first time, a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has provided concrete figures on the issue. Global trade...

Switzerland is a country of inventors. Start-ups and SMEs reinforce this reputation with their innovations and creative achievements. Intellectual property and its protection is a key piece of the puzzle for a company on the path to success.  It is only when a SME knows how to manage their intellectual assets and how to protect their own innovations that they are able to make strategic and...

Find out what we were involved in at the IPI in the 2019/2020 business year in our new Annual Report. It gives you an overview of the year at the IPI, including a detailed interview with experts about the benefits and merits of electronic IP rights management. The photos throughout the Annual Report explain the fundamental aspects of protecting a design, illustrated with design classics from the...

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...

During the coronavirus crisis, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) supported SMEs and start-ups by providing free assisted patent searches. In an interview, the deputy head of the patent division takes stock, speaks about online meetings being occasionally interrupted by children making noise and praises SMEs’ innovative strength. Read the interview on our blog.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the technology at the centre of the fourth industrial revolution. It is already having an impact on daily life around the world, and equally is influencing intellectual property. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published a Revised Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence. Within the framework of an open-ended...

The measures to limit the pandemic are hitting many companies hard: revenue losses, liquidity bottlenecks and short-time working. So ideas are in demand right now, not only to develop crisis-proof business models in the short term, but also to optimally shape the new start post-crisis in the longer term. During this challenging period, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE) is...

Trade marks in Switzerland continue to be popular. More than 17,000 applications for trade marks were received by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in 2019, which is slightly more than the previous year. There are now more than 500,000 trade marks in force nationally. Applications for design rights, on the other hand, have remained stable, while the number of patent...

The National Council, as second chamber, has approved the motion “Towards a modern Swiss patent” from Councillor of States Thomas Hefti. The motion, which was approved on 12 December 2019, has three objectives: a full patent examination for Swiss patent applications, the introduction of a utility model, and an extended opposition procedure. The IPI, as the competent federal authority, will now...

On 4 December, start-ups presented their innovations as part of the Boldbrain Startup Challenge in Lugano. First place was awarded to Orchestra, a software start-up. The winners received 40,000 Swiss francs and a scholarship worth 45,000 Swiss francs. 400 people attended the ceremony. The Boldbrain programme supports start-ups in the various stages of developing a business idea. It focuses on...

The Swiss courts regularly deal with cases concerning intellectual property law. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) has now published statistics on the court rulings.   The figures on IP rights in 2018 show, for example, that the most court decisions by far are made in the area of trade mark law (57%). This is followed by copyright law (27%) and patent law (9%).   ...

Find out what the IPI did in the 2018/2019 business year. The new annual report gives you an overview of the IPI year and explains why patent know-how is worth money and describes the services that patent experts provide for Switzerland as a location for innovation. The photographs illustrate fundamental aspects of the federal government’s “attorney’s office” for intellectual property law and what...

The IPI will discontinue its fax services at the end of 2019. The reason for this is that the IPI’s telecommunications provider is switching from analogue telephony to the Internet Protocol (known as All IP). As a result, faxes would be susceptible to errors and the complete transmission of messages and documents would not be guaranteed. Email and post are offered as alternative means of...

At its meeting on 13 February 2019, the Institute Council elected Barbara Hübscher Schmuki as General Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), with effect from 1 March 2019. She was also elected to the Institute Council of the IPI. In the role of General Secretary of the FDJP and member of the Institute Council, she succeeds Matthias Ramsauer, who transferred to the...

Find out what the IPI did in the 2017/18 business year. The new Annual Report gives you an overview of the IPI year and explains why the IPI is playing a key role in maintaining and developing trade mark law. The photographs illustrate basic aspects of patentability by showing important achievements from an era that was completely dominated by the digital breakthrough. We wish you an enjoyable and...

Eleven girls and boys visited the IPI on Switzerland’s National Future Day to get a fascinating glimpse into the world of work of their parents. We wanted to find out what they would invent themselves. On 8 November, children got to know the IPI and take a look into the world of trade marks, patents and designs as part of Switzerland’s National Future Day. Following the welcome at 8.30am,...

The IPI has now been providing patent and trade mark searches for more than thirty years. But in November 2003, following a steady growth in demand for professionally prepared bases for decisions on trade marks and patents, the IPI decided to give its services its own name and platform in the form of “ip-search”. ip-search stands not only for premium quality patent and trade mark searches, but...

The Institute Council of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) has appointed Jürgen Horwath and Iwan Guler as new members of the IPI Executive Board. Mr Guler, whose appointment comes into effect in April 2019, follows in the footsteps of Ueli Buri, who has been selected as the new Data Protection Commissioner of the Canton of Bern. Jürgen Horwath will become an executive...

sic! – the journal for intellectual property, information and fair competition law has been published since 1997 and is an indispensable journal for the professional community. It is financed by the IPI and the Swiss International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI Switzerland) as well as 14 other professional organisations. Its content is the responsibility of an...

Since 1 January 2017, the IPI has been actively combating misuse of “Swissness” in Switzerland and abroad. The cooperation of the business community and the authorities is making an impact, with the IPI successfully intervening in 287 cases in 2017 at home and abroad. A review of the enforcement of «Swissness» in 2017Overview of the enforcement of “Swissness” by the IPI

From 13 to 15 June 2018, the 40th PATINFO will take place in Ilmenau, Germany. Under this year’s theme “IP Search – Impact on Competition”, service providers, patent attorneys, and industry and patent office representatives will discuss the latest developments and trends at the largest German-speaking patent information conference. The IPI will again be present this year with an exhibition stand...

On 11 April 2018, the Federal Council elected Peter Walser, with effect from 1 May 2018, and Luc Amgwerd, with effect from 1 July 2018, as new members of the Institute Council of the IPI. Peter Walser is a Swiss and European patent attorney, and has been a partner in a Zurich patent attorney firm for many years. He succeeds Vincenzo Pedrazzini who resigned from the Institute Council at the end...

Find out what has been making news in the IPI during the 2016/2017 business year. The latest annual report provides an overview of activities at the IPI, and shows why the credibility of intellectual property is a cornerstone of our prosperity. The photographs illustrate basic aspects of the practice of trade mark protection. We hope you enjoy reading it!

Companies are frequently confronted with a variety of problems. By the time an SME thinks about protecting its intellectual property, however, it’s often too late. Felix Addor, deputy director general of the IPI, takes a stand on this issue in an interview published on the federal administration's SME portal.The IPI’s platform ,Envisioned. Created. Protected., provides relevant information to...

The Institute of Intellectual Property is planning to substantially revise the www.ipi.ch and www.ip-search.ch websites. The aim is to present our information and services tailored to customers’ needs in a more up-to-date way. What bothers you as a user of our websites?Which website sections would you definitely not miss?Who has a better website solution in your opinion? Your opinion is...

Do you have an idea or an invention? Would you like to know if you can patent it? As well as having ideas for technical innovations, do you also know how you would like to set your goods or services apart with a specific sign or design? The IPI now offers additional information on trade marks and designs as part of this search service, where needed. Within the scope of the Assisted Patent...