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...