The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) has updated its guidelines for the substantive examination of national patent applications. The new guidelines (PDF, in German, in French) will apply to all pending procedures from 1 January 2021.

The updated guidelines define, in particular, the criteria for the examination of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) and paediatric SPCs (Chapters 13 and 14).

In addition, the information on the time limits that must observed for objections by the IPI has been adapted to reflect current practice. The IPI grants a period of three months for all objections issued in the course of the substantive examination of a patent application. For objections concerning SPCs and paediatric renewals, the time limit is two months (Chapter 1.2.3). As before, these time limits can be extended.

The other changes in the guidelines are mostly editorial.