In its Annual Report 2018, the European Patent Office (EPO) has published statistics on patent applications originating from Switzerland. A record number of patent applications were filed from Switzerland in the past year. “With regard to patents, Switzerland demonstrated very significant growth in 2018,” said EPO President António Campinos. According to the report, Switzerland is the country...

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...

In January, participants in the Swiss Youth in Science national competition presented their entries to subject matter experts in Lugano, Bern and Lausanne, in the hope of qualifying for the final. The jury has since made its selection – 125 young people and 105 projects have reached the final, which will take place in Rapperswil from 2 - 4 May 2019. Investing in the future Given that their...

Almost 1 ,000 trade marks were applied for at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) in 2018. As a result, there are now more than 500 000 trade marks in force for the first time in Switzerland. Registering a trade mark protects companies from free-riders, although trade marks are not the only thing that companies and private individuals can apply to register. This is also...

SMEs and start-ups should be provided with the best conditions to make their innovations economically viable. This is the incentive for a collaboration between the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) and Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. The Assisted Patent Search is at the heart of the collaboration between Innosuisse and the IPI. Recipients of Innosuisse funding can...

Switzerland introduced two proposals concerning the field of patents and health, together with Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Canada, to the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). Both proposals were taken up in the committee's Work Program on 6 December, resulting in a successful interregional collaboration between countries with frequently opposing stances in the...

At Young Enterprise Switzerland (YES), some young people have started their own mini-company and in doing so, have learned how to create value by protecting their own creations. Following the initial phase of the programme, which began in August and dealt with founding the mini-company, start-up capital and the business plan, the mini-companies are now presenting their products at Christmas...

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...

Researchers and start-ups presented a total of 36 innovations to potential investors, industry representatives and technology transfer experts at the Campus Biotech on 15 November. “We are very pleased with how the event went,” says Karolina Niewola, the person in charge of organising BioInnovation Day at the University of Geneva. With 182 participants, the event attracted similar interest as the...

The new guidelines for the substantive examination of national patent applications will come into effect on 1 January 2019.From this date, those carrying out paediatric studies for medicinal products can request at the IPI an extension to a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) or, if no conventional SPC exists, a paediatric SPC. The IPI has therefore integrated the relevant legislative...