What’s happened up to now

 

Greater legal certainty in plant breeding: Federal Council approves the dispatch on the partial revision of the Patents Act

The Federal Council adopted the partial revision of the Patents Act at its meeting on 9 September 2026. The draft provides for a disclosure requirement in favour of breeders.

 

Patent applicants or owners of patents relating to biological material from a plant must disclose which varieties are concerned in a database recognised by the IPI. If this disclosure requirement isn’t met, applicants and patent owners can’t enforce their patent against any further developed variety.

 

The draft also stipulates the scope of a patent on a characteristic: protective rights cannot be asserted if breeders develop the same characteristic without using patented biological material and solely by means of conventional breeding.

 

 

Results of the consultation and next steps

By the end of the consultation procedure on 12 September 2024, 53 opinions had been received. It became apparent that, although there was a need for greater transparency, the proposed clearing house remained controversial. The consultation participants agreed that the Swiss solution must be compatible with developments at European level.

 

Based on these results, the IPI, as the federal authority responsible, developed a new concept. This is intended to further improve transparency, while also taking account of developments in the EU.

 

All opinions received and the consultation documents can be found on Fedlex, the publication platform for federal law.

 

Opening of the consultation procedure

On 22 May 2024, the Federal Council submitted a draft of the revision of patent law for consultation. The draft proposed the establishment of a clearing house. The clearing house was to be an online platform operated by the IPI, designed to enable breeders to find out quickly and early on whether a variety they want to use in breeding is affected by a patent.

 

More transparency in the area of patents in plant breeding: the IPI prepares preliminary draft of the revision of the Patents Act

In 2022, the Science, Education and Culture Committee of the Council of States (SECC-S) submitted Motion 22.3014 «More transparency in the area of patents in plant breeding’ (in German, French and Italian)». In this motion, it instructed the Federal Council to amend the bases of patent law and – where necessary – plant variety law so as to improve the transparency of patents in the area of plant breeding.

 

Both the Federal Council and Parliament adopted the motion. The IPI, as the federal authority responsible, prepared a preliminary draft of the revision of the Patents Act.

 

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