HOME > Reference Room[Other Reference Information] > Information on foreign industrial property systems > Table of Contents >

PART VII EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATIONS AND EUROPEAN PATENTS

114. Scope of the Ordinance

(1) This Part shall apply to European patent applications and European patents that produce their effects in Switzerland.

(2) The other provisions of this Ordinance shall also apply, except where Article 109 of the Law and this Part provide otherwise.

115. Filing with the Institute

(1) Persons who have their domicile or headquarters in Switzerland shall be entitled, as applicants or agents, to file European patent applications with the Institute, with the exception of divisional applications.

(2) The Institute shall indicate on the application documents the date on which they received them.

(3) Fees collected under the European Patent Convention shall be paid directly to the European Patent Office.

116. Translation

(1) Any person who submits to the Institute a translation of a claim of a published European patent application (Article 112 of the Law) or of the original or amended specification of the European patent (Article 113 of the Law) shall indicate the number of the application or of the patent.

(2) If, as a result of the opposition procedure, the European patent has been maintained in an amended form, the new translation may be entirely replaced by a declaration specifying to what extent the previous translation is also applicable to the amended patent specification.

(3) The Institute shall record the date of receipt of the translation. It shall confine itself to examining whether the translation is complete.

(4) For the purposes of consultation, the Institute shall immediately make the translation available and shall record the date as from which it is available for consultation.

(5) If the translation is revised (Article 114 of the Law), subsections (1) to (4) shall apply mutatis mutandis.

(6) If the translation of the patent specification or of the declaration under subsection (2) has not been submitted in time (Article 113(2) of the Law), the Institute shall state that the patent has not produced its effects in Switzerland. When this decision has come into force, it shall cancel the patent with effect from the date of grant.

117. Register and File

(1) The following shall be entered in the Swiss Register of European Patents (Article 117 of the Law):

(a) the information given in the European Patent Register at the time of grant;
(b) the information contained in the European Patent Register on the subject of the opposition procedure;
(c) in addition, the indications provided for Swiss patents.

(2) The Institute shall register the information in the language used in the procedure before the European Patent Office; where that language is English, registration shall take place in the Swiss official language in which the translation of the patent specification has been supplied and, if such a translation is lacking, in the official language chosen by the Institute.

(3) The language adopted in accordance with subsection (2) shall be the language in which the procedure takes place (Article 4).

(4) The Institute shall keep a file on each European patent.

117a. Patent Marking

For European patents having effect in Switzerland, the patent marking (Article 11 of the Law) shall comprise the reference "EP/CH" followed by the number of the patent.

118. Transformation

(1) When a European patent application or a European patent is converted into a Swiss patent application, the Institute shall allow the applicant a time limit for carrying out the following operations:

(a) pay the filing fee (Article 17a(1) item a);
(b) produce the translation (Article 123 of the Law);
(c) appoint an agent (Article 13 of the Law).

(2) If more than two years have elapsed since the filing date of the Swiss patent application resulting from transformation, the annual fee due shall be paid within six months following the invitation to do so by the Institute; if payment is effected during the last three months, a surcharge shall be collected.

118a. Annual Fees

A European patent shall be subject to the payment each year in advance of annual fees levied by the Institute; the first payment shall be due for the year which, counted from the filing of the application, follows that during which the grant of the European patent has been notified in the European Patent Bulletin.

[Prev] [Next]
To Top
HOME > Reference Room[Other Reference Information] > Information on foreign industrial property systems > Table of Contents >