Patents

Your creativity has led to an innovative technical development. This gives you a technological advantage over your competitors. Secure this advantage by protecting your innovation with a patent.

For a patent to be granted, the innovation must be technical. It is not possible to patent an aesthetic innovation or a commercial idea.

The idea must also be concretely feasible, even if it has not been concretely realized.

The invention must also be clearly and fully disclosed. A person skilled in the art must be able to reproduce the invention on the basis of the information disclosed in the patent application. In addition, the invention must meet the criteria of novelty and inventive step.

An invention fulfils the criteria of novelty if it has not been disclosed to the public before the filing date of the patent application.

An invention meets the criterion of inventive step if it does not derive in an obvious way from the state of the art, i.e. from everything that is publicly available in the field.

So don't set up a website, hold a public conference or enter a competition before you've consulted an expert!

Our services in the field of patents

• Advice on the patentability of an invention
• Prior Art search to determine whether an innovation is novel and inventive
• Analysis of the freedom to exploit an invention
• Drafting of description, drawings and patent application claims
• Procedures for filing patent applications with national and regional offices (USPTO, WIPO, EPO, IPI, ...)
• Follow-up of patent procedures at national and regional offices
• Management of maintenance fees
• Patent monitoring
• Preparation and filing of oppositions against third party patents
• Defenses against third party opositions
• Management of portfolios (including registration of name changes, assignments, etc.)
• Training in the field of patents

Downloadable documents

• Power of Attorney (PDF) / (Word)

Liste of countries

• Member States of the du PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty)
• Member States of the European patent office

Useful links

www.swissreg.ch - Search for Swiss patents
www.espacenet.org - Patent searches