The patent law revision is currently underway in Switzerland. On 16 November 2022, the Federal Council of Switzerland proposed a partial revision of the Federal Act on Patents for Inventions (Patents Act). On 30 January 2023, the Science, Education and Culture Committee of the Swiss Parliament (Committee) started deliberation on the relevant bill. During this first session, the Committee consulted experts from the technology transfer offices of ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne as well as representatives of the Swiss Union of Crafts and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, scienceindustries and economiesuisse. For further consideration, the Committee has requested additional information and will continue deliberations on the bill at its next meeting, which will take place probably after the summer break.
Examination procedure
One of the main aspects of the revision touches upon the Swiss patent examination procedure and gives the possibility to request that Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) conducts a full examination of an individual patent application and thus obtain a fully examined Swiss patent. Read more