SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Philippe Nordmann, Marion Bähler, Dario Glauser, Christian Hagen and Samuel Lieberherr, Walder Wyss Ltd
The following cannot be patented: • abstract ideas without specific technical solutions, discoveries of natural processes or phenomena, scientific theories and math - ematical methods; • game rules and teaching methods; • diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical proce - dures used on humans or animals; • plant varieties, animal breeds and other biological procedures for breeding plants or animals (however, 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 inven - tion; • 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 skilled in the art. This is referred to as insufficient disclosure. The plaintiff can also argue that important elements or steps relating to the invention are not mentioned or obvious in the patent specification. Patent infringements can be prosecuted through both civil actions and criminal proceedings. Length of Protection Patents are protected for 20 years from the date of filing. This period is generally not extendable. However, for certain products (eg, medicinal products) a supplementary protection certificate may be requested that extends patent protec - tion for up to five years. 7.2 Trade Marks Definition A trade mark is a protected sign that distinguish - es a company′s products or services from those of other companies. The following categories of trade marks are available: • individual trade marks, being the most com - mon category, typically used by companies to identify and market their products and services; • collective trade marks, used for the identifica - tion and marketing of products and services by associations and their members; • guarantee trade marks, guaranteeing that goods and services possess specific charac - teristics (eg, regarding quality or geographical origin); and • geographical trade marks, requiring the existence of a prior registration, a foreign (controlled) designation of origin recognised by Switzerland, a geographical indication, the
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