SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Philippe Nordmann, Marion Bähler, Christian Hagen, Samuel Lieberherr and Dario Glauser, Walder Wyss Ltd
there are no adequate and reasonable opportunities for switching to other undertakings. The Swiss Cartel Act lists certain behaviours of dominant undertakings and undertakings with rela - tive market power that are considered unlawful (non- exclusive): • any refusal to deal (eg, refusal to supply or to pur - chase goods); • any discrimination between trading partners in rela - tion to prices or other conditions of trade; • any imposition of unfair prices or other unfair con - ditions of trade; • any undercutting of prices or other conditions directed against a specific competitor; • any limitation of production, supply or technical development; • any conclusion of contracts on the condition that the other contracting party agrees to accept or deliver additional goods or services; and • restriction of the opportunity for buyers to pur - chase goods or services offered both in Switzer - land and abroad at the market prices and con - ditions customary in the industry in the foreign country concerned. The abuse of a dominant market position by a domi - nant company (but not the abuse of relative market power) is subject to a fine of up to 10% of the turnover of such company in Switzerland in the preceding three financial years.
Under the current Swiss patent regime, novelty and inventive step are generally not substantively exam - ined prior to grant. However, revised Swiss patent legislation entering into force on 1 January 2027 will introduce a mandatory prior-art search for all applica - tions and an optional full examination of novelty and inventive step. The following cannot be patented: • abstract ideas without specific technical solutions, discoveries of natural processes or phenomena, scientific theories and mathematical methods; • game rules and teaching methods; • diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical procedures used on humans or animals; • plant varieties, animal breeds and other biological procedures for breeding plants or animals (how - ever, biotechnological inventions – such as the extraction of human insulin from yeast cells – can be patented); and • inventions whose use would be contrary to public policy, explicitly forbidden or immoral. Application Swiss patent applications must be filed with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. The following need to be submitted over the course of the filing process: • information on the applicant; • a description of the invention; • at least one patent claim to define the invention; • technical drawings of reproducible quality; • a declaration regarding international priority rights claimed (if any); and • the names of the individual inventors. Enforcement and Remedies Any valid patent can be challenged before the Swiss Federal Patent Court. Patents (or parts thereof) can be cancelled if: • the invention was not new or innovative at the time of filing; or • the invention is not described sufficiently clearly and precisely for it to be realised by a person
7. Intellectual Property 7.1 Patents Definition
An invention or process can be patented if it is: • new and does not form part of the state of the art – ie, all knowledge that has been made publicly available anywhere in the world prior to the patent application; • inventive, which means that it must not be obvious to a person skilled in the art; and • industrially applicable and practicable, with the possibility of replicating its implementation.
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