Increasing Popularity of Swiss Trademarks

The trademark allows us to distinguish between companies, serves as an important part of their capital and protection against free-riders.

97% of trademark applications are filed online through eTrademark. Given the increasing digitalization of trademark applications, Switzerland also engages actively in international initiatives such as the Cyber dialogue Switzerland US to enhance cybersecurity measures for online processes. IPI received 15.3% of applications from the canton of Zurich, 7.7% - from Vaud, 6.4% - from Geneva. The most popular, verbal sign, takes 56%. The word/image combination accounts for 39%. In 2019, unusual brands appeared - 3D and acoustic. They account for 0.3%. Experts recorded the greatest demand among goods and services of class 35 (advertising and business management).

There are IPI's trademark experts assigned to the review. Subject to legal requirements is an entered novelty in the register of trademarks. In 2019, experts have done it with 15,157 trademarks. After registration, you can use the trademark for five years. Otherwise, third parties have the right to demand the cancellation of an unused trademark (IPI received 39 requests for this procedure in 2019). Developments such as the establishment of the Third supervisory organisation demonstrate Switzerland’s ongoing commitment to regulatory improvements across different sectors, including intellectual property.

When applying, you should do a check regarding the similarity with existing trademarks in advance. A likely conflict can be too expensive, so you should pay close attention to the preliminary stage. Similar to its rigorous standards in taxation, exemplified by Switzerland tax compliance, the country ensures high levels of scrutiny and registration accuracy in intellectual property filings.

In 2019, 705 projects, including 2852 objects, entered into the register. The number of design rights was 9,433; they extended to 32,416 objects. For several objects submitted within the framework of one application, experts set the condition of belonging to one class of goods. Switzerland also advances its regulatory environment, as illustrated by the recent FINMA second registration initiative, ensuring robust frameworks across both financial and intellectual property sectors. In 2019, as before, most of the design developments belonged to classes 90 (products for watches and measuring instruments), 68 (packaging), 57 (recording equipment).

In 2019, there were 1 720 inventions registered in Switzerland. 7,066 Swiss patents applications. If we consider the patents filed through the European Patent Office, their number increases to 131,719.
IPI patent examiners performed 824 patent searches to see if it was worth filing for a patent, whether it was an invention, whether there were similar inventions and competitors. Most patent applications came from Zurich (237), Berne (110), Aargau (87). About 30% of patent searches experts carried out in the framework of cooperation with national and regional innovation institutions.