The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI), based in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, is an agency of the

federal administration of Switzerland The federal administration of Switzerland is the ensemble of agencies that constitute, together with the Swiss Federal Council, the executive branch of the Switzerland, Swiss federal authorities. The administration is charged with executing ...

responsible for

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

geographical indications A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town or region). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, is inten ...

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

s and

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

. It is part of the

Federal Department of Justice and Police The Federal Department of Justice and Police (, , , ) is one of the seven Ministry (government department), departments of the Switzerland, Swiss federal government, and is equivalent to a ministry of justice in other countries. As of 2024, it ...

. Since 1996, it operates as an autonomous agency with control of its own budget.

History

The Federal Intellectual Property Agency was founded on 15 November 1888.

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

worked there as a patent clerk for several years, including 1905, his ''

Annus Mirabilis ''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", or "miraculous year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered, notably ...

'' (miracle year). That year, while continuing to work on patents, Einstein published four groundbreaking papers that are fundamental to modern physics. The agency was renamed the Federal Office of Intellectual Property in 1978 as part of the new administrative organisation law. On 1 January 1996, it received the status of an independent public law institution and continued under the name of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI).

Mandate and services

The IPI's tasks are laid down in Federal Act on the Status and Tasks of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPIA) adopted by the Federal Assembly in 1995. Its main tasks are: * The granting of intellectual property (IP) rights: The IPI is the central point of contact for patent, trade mark and design applications in Switzerland and, depending on the procedure, also for international applications. It examines national applications, grants IP rights and administers the relevant registers. Its official organ for publishing IP rights is the online database Swissreg. Information from the IP registers on IP rights and protected topographies can be found in this database free of charge. * Sovereign duty to provide information: The IPI informs industry stakeholders, educational institutions and the public about the intellectual property protection systems and how they can be utilised to the best advantage. * Political services: The IPI prepares legislation on patents for inventions, designs, copyright and related rights, topographies of semiconductor products, trade marks and indications of source, public coats of arms and other public signs, as well as other enactments in the field of intellectual property. It advises the federal authorities and represents Switzerland in all intellectual property issues in international organisations and in negotiations with third states. * Commercial information services: The IPI carries out patent searches on the basis of

private law Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...

under the label of ip-search; in particular, it carries out prior art searches, validity searches (opposition searches), patent infringement searches (freedom-to-operate) and strategic patent analyses. The IPI examines patent applications but this examination, as of 2021, does not include checking whether the invention meets the

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

and inventive step requirements.

Notable employees

Directors General * 1888 – 1921 Friedrich Haller * 1921 – 1935 Walther Kraft * 1935 – 1962 Hans Morf * 1962 – 1969 Joseph Voyame (1923–2010) * 1969 – 1975 Walter Stamm * 1976 – 1985 Paul Brändli * 1985 – 1989 Jean-Louis Comte * 1989 – 2015 Roland Grossenbacher (born 1950) * 2015 – present Catherine Chammartin Technical experts * 1902 – 1909

(1879–1955)

Notes

References

External links

*
IPI’s ip-search patent searches

Swissreg IP rights database

Official text of the IPIA (read online)
1888 establishments in Switzerland Patent offices

Intellectual Property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...