• Intellectual property
  • Your intellectual property
    • Your competitors’ intellectual property
    • Conditional protection
  • All IP rights at a glance
    • Trade mark protection
    • Patent protection
    • Design protection
    • Copyright
  • Developing an IP strategy
    • How do I formulate an IP strategy?
    • What does an IP strategy consist of?
    • Help in developing an IP strategy
  • Counterfeiting and piracy
    • What does the law say?
    • National and international counter-measures
    • What rights holders can do
    • Detained small consignments
      • Information for applicants
      • FAQ
    • Studies
    • Archive
      • ACTA
        • Negotiations
        • Information and Consultation Meetings
        • Published documents
        • Frequently asked questions
  • IP and society
    • Swiss health foreign policy and access to therapeutic products
      • Public Health
        • Documents and links
    • Access to non-personal data in the private sector
      • Definition and examples
      • Analysis of the Data Market
      • Model agreements
      • Alternative dispute resolution
    • Innovation
    • Future scenarios
      • Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI)
      • Big Data
      • Internet of things (IoT)
      • Augemented Reality
      • Virtual Reality
      • Blockchain
  • Intellectual property and sustainable development
    • Measures
      • Sustainability working group
      • Sustainability at the IPI
    • Green trade marks
      • Not all trade marks are the same
      • After the trade mark application
    • Genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore
    • Food and agriculture
    • Technology transfer, geographical indications and human rights
  • SME portal
    • Help for SMEs
    • SME testimonies
      • Protecting trade marks
      • Protecting patents
      • Designs
      • Innovation
      • Enforcing your IP rights
      • Licensing
  • Guide for Innovative and Creative Minds
    • Idea
      • Can ideas be protected?
      • Keep it a secret!
      • Do your research!
      • Found something?
      • If you don’t find
      • Realistic project?
      • To protect or not?
    • Product development
      • Prototype
      • Cooperation
      • Technical problems
      • Business plan
      • Starting a company
      • Internet presence
      • Trade mark
      • Everything legal?
      • Don’t infringe!
    • IP strategy
      • Define your strategy
      • IP rights are assets
    • Patents
      • Protection requirements
      • No protection for...
      • Filing a patent application
      • Protection abroad
      • Costs
    • Trade marks
      • Grounds for refusal
      • Search first!
      • Trade mark registration
      • Protection abroad
      • Costs
    • Designs
      • Requirements for protection
      • No protection for
      • Depositing designs
      • Protection abroad
      • Costs
    • Copyright
      • Conditions for protection
      • No protection for
      • Protection abroad
    • Marketing
      • Advertising
      • Keep a record!
    • Enforcement
      • Monitor your competition
      • Export
      • Monitor register entries
      • Litigation?
      • Managing rights
      • Dealing with conflicts
      • Protection expired?
    • Any questions?
• Protecting your IP
  • Trade marks
    • Before you apply
      • Your IP protection strategy
        • Trade mark categories
        • Trade mark types
        • List of goods and services
        • National or international application
        • Trade mark consultants
      • Requirements for protection
        • Grounds for refusal
        • Risk of conflict
        • Trade mark examination support tool
    • National applications
      • Duration of procedure
      • Costs and fees
      • Application rejected?
    • International applications
      • Filing your application
      • Documents and links
      • Costs and fees
    • After registration
      • Use your trade mark
        • Cancellation procedure for trade marks on the grounds of non-use
      • Monitor and defend your trade mark
        • Filing an opposition
      • Updating your register entry
      • Renewing protection
    • FAQs
  • Indications of source
    • Indications of source basics
      • Criteria for determining origin
        • Natural products
        • Foodstuffs
        • Industrial products
        • Services
      • Swissness
        • The Swiss cross
        • The Swiss coat of arms
    • Protecting geographical indications
      • Protection in Switzerland
        • Right to protection
        • Proof of representation
        • Product specification
        • Application and examination
        • Post registration
        • Register for geographical indications
      • Protection abroad
      • Lisbon System
        • Registration and fees
        • Filing an opposition
      • Geographical mark
    • Fighting misuse
      • The role of the IPI
    • FAQ
  • Patents
    • Patent basics
      • What is a patent?
      • What is an invention?
      • Why patent an invention?
      • Alternatives to patenting
      • Who has what rights to the invention?
      • Where is a patent valid?
      • Patent searches and monitoring
    • Before you apply
      • Patenting strategy
      • Analysing your invention
      • Verifying novelty
      • Three routes to patent protection
        • National patent application
        • European patent application
        • International patent application
        • Combining the three procedures
      • Priority period
      • Costs and fees
        • Patents fees
      • Patent attorneys
        • The IP Advisory Network
        • The Swiss Patent Attorney Register
        • The European Patent Attorney Register
        • Patent attorney associations in CH and FL
    • Application in Switzerland
      • Application procedure
        • The patenting procedure
        • Technical documents
        • Formalities for filing your invention
        • Application form
        • Classification
        • Priority documents
        • Verify the scope of protection of your patent by carrying out a search
        • The disclosure
      • The substantive examination
        • Accelerating the examination
        • Modifying the technical documents
      • The granting
      • Revision of the Patents Act
    • International application
    • Depositing biological material
    • After your patent has been granted
      • Opposition
      • Patent marking
      • Exploiting your patent
      • Patent disputes
      • Enforcing your patent
      • Register entry
      • The supplementary protection certificate (SPC)
        • Paediatric extensions
    • FAQs
  • Designs
    • Before you apply
      • Requirements for protection
        • Non-protectable elements
      • Your IP protection strategy
        • Analysing your design
        • Representing your design
        • Classifying your design
      • Novelty and priority
      • Design searches
      • Applying nationally or internationally
    • Swiss applications
      • Steps for registering a design
      • Submitting your application
      • Schedule of fees
      • Registration and publication
      • Deferring publication
    • EU applications
    • International applications
    • Post registration
      • Renewing protection
      • Cancelling a design
      • Exploiting designs
      • Enforcing design rights
    • FAQs
  • Copyright
    • The basics
    • Protecting a work
      • Assigning copyright
      • The tangible benefits
      • Proving authorship
      • Enforcing rights
    • Using a work
      • Permitted uses
        • Quoting from works
      • Protection for photographs
        • Are all photos protected?
      • Public Domain
      • Creative Commons
      • Copyright on the internet
      • Copyright in schools
        • Non-class based uses
        • Teachers and students as rights owners
      • Copyright in businesses
        • Rights assignment and licensing
    • Collective management organisations
      • Post from ProLitteris
      • Supervision
    • The tasks of the IPI
    • Monitoring Office OTM
      • Investigations and reports
      • Reporting technological measures misuse
      • OTM activity reports
  • Topographies
    • Register
• Law and policy
  • National IP law
    • Trade mark law
      • Revision: Destruction of counterfeits
    • Patent law
      • Revision: Transparency of patents in plant breeding
        • Aim of the revision
        • Consultation procedure
        • Plant breeding and patents
      • Revision: Strengthening the Swiss patent
        • Objectives of the revision
        • From motion to dispatch
        • Parliamentary deliberation
        • Revision of the Patents Ordinance
      • Revision: Destruction of counterfeits
      • Patent Attorney Act
        • Protection of the professional title “Patent Attorney”
        • Supervision and release from professional confidentiality
        • Patent Attorney Register FAQs
      • Biotechnological inventions
      • Parallel imports and exhaustion
      • The transit of goods protected by patent
      • Archive
        • Patent Attorney Act and Patent Court Act
        • Biotechnological inventions
        • Parallel Imports
        • Free choice of medical treatment
        • Paediatric extensions
    • Design law
      • Revision: Destruction of counterfeits
    • Indications of source
      • Swiss indications of source
        • Entry into force
        • Background and goals
        • Evaluation
        • New legislation
        • Industry ordinances
        • FAQ
        • FAQ
        • Archive
    • Copyright law
      • Related rights for the media
        • All about the draft amendment
        • Consultation procedure
      • Revision of copyright law
        • The key reforms
        • Parliamentary deliberations
        • All about the draft amendment
        • Consultation on the revision of copyright law
        • The AGUR12 working group
        • Archive
      • Revision: Destruction of counterfeits
    • Other industrial property rights
  • International IP law
    • IP organisations
      • WIPO
        • Trade marks
        • Patents
        • Designs
        • Indications of source
        • Geographical indications
        • Flags and emblems
        • Copyright
        • Enforcement
        • Biodiversity and sustainable development
      • EPO
        • Unitary EU patent system
    • Other organisations
      • WTO
        • Archive
      • WHO
        • Archive
      • FAO
        • International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
      • CBD
        • Biodiversity
        • Nagoya Protocol
        • Working Group on Article 8(j) CBD
      • ICANN
        • Domain names
    • Bilateral agreements
      • Free trade agreements
        • EFTA
        • Switzerland - China
      • Agreements on Geographical indications
      • Trade and economic cooperation
    • Bilateral relations
      • China
      • India
        • Archive
    • Substantive patent law harmonisation
      • Consultation on the patent law harmonisation
        • Consultation report
  • Development cooperation
    • Objectives and principles
    • Current projects
      • Morocco
      • Moldova
      • Peru Phase 2
      • South Africa
      • Tunisia
      • Global Program for Intellectual Property Rights
    • Completed projects
• Services
  • IP Academy
    • Basic knowledge
      • IP Basic Workshop
      • IP Info
      • Crash course
    • Specific topics
      • IP Workshops
      • IP-Info PLUS
      • IP Management
    • Courses for aspiring experts
      • Advanced course
      • Swiss IP specialist and patent attorney training course
      • "À la carte" courses
        • Copy-right or Wrong? Training for School Heads
        • Copy-right or Wrong? Training for Teachers
        • Brand Management and Trade Mark Law
        • Overview of IP and Practical Know-How
        • Dealing with Know-how in Cooperation Agreements
        • Quick and Efficient Analysis of Intellectual Property Rights
        • Company technologies – To Protect or Not To Protect?
        • Keeping Company Know-How Confidential
        • Structuring and Maintaining a Patent Department – Specifically for Decision-Makers
      • Presentations
    • Training schedule
    • General information
      • Prices
      • Registration and cancellation
      • Team & contact
  • Searches
    • Patent searches in general
      • Searching for patents yourself
      • Patent Application Search
      • Patent Register Search
      • Advanced searches
      • Feedback form
    • Trade mark searches
  • Newsroom
    • News
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  • Digital resources
    • Databases and directories
      • Swissreg
        • Trade mark database
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        • Design database
        • SPC / paediatric SPC database
        • List of protected public signs
      • Protected abbreviations
      • Protected emblems
    • Online services
      • e-trademark
      • International trade mark registration
        • Help with international trade mark registration
      • Classification tool
        • Help with the classification tool
      • Examination support tool
      • Register changes
        • Official documents of evidence
      • Current account debit order
        • Help for current account debit order
      • Submissions on detained small consignments
      • User account for online services
        • Help with permission management
    • IP data
      • Data delivery via API
      • Patent data
  • Correspondence and payment
    • Submitting documents and receiving correspondence
      • Submitting documentation for procedures
      • Email submissions
        • Security certificates
        • FAQs
      • Submissions via our online services
      • Electronic delivery
        • Request electronic delivery
        • FAQs
      • Data Exchange Platform
    • Methods of payment
      • Postal/bank account transfers
      • Current account
      • Online payment and credit cards
      • Terms of payment
      • Beware of fake invoices for fees
  • Documents and links
    • Trade mark
    • Patents
      • +pat+ and mod.dép.
    • Design
    • Indications of source
    • Copyright
    • The IPI and IP rights in general downloads
• About us
  • What we do
  • Strategic objectives
  • Commitment
  • Partnerships
  • Organisation
    • Executive Board
      • Catherine Chammartin
      • Felix Addor
      • Jürgen Horwath
      • Eric Meier
    • Institute Council
  • Working at the IPI
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  • The history of the IPI
    • Thirty years of the IPI
    • Einstein
      • Einstein in Bern
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• Contact us
• Blog
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