Intellectual Property & Trademark in Switzerland (Swiss)

Federal Act on the Protection of Trade Marks and Indications of Source (TmPA)

Trade Mark Protection Ordinance (MSchV)

A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods/services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. Trademarks may, in particular, be words, letters, numerals, figurative representations, three-dimensional shapes or combinations of such elements with each other or with colours.

How to register your trademark in Switzerland

1. Carry out a search.

To ensure that your trademark does not infringe the right of others or earlier trademark, to find out whether your trademark is already being used or has been registered as a company or domain name by someone else, carry out a search before applying to register is important. You can do this search by yourself or use professional searches.

2. Apply via E-Trademark.

The application can be filed online, using the electronic application system e-trademark, or we can also apply to register the trademark with the form from The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI), and send it by post, fax or email.

3. Examination on filing.

When registering a trademark, we must indicate the goods and services in The International Classification of Goods and Services established by the Nice Agreement (known as “Nice Classification”), groups all goods and services into a total of 45 classes. The list of goods and services cannot be extended once the trade mark has been registered, so make sure that you specify the goods and/or services as precisely as possible in your application.

4. Application Accessible on Swissreg.

Once you have sent the application, it will be published on www.swissreg.ch. You can check the status of your application here any time. They also issue a Certificate of Filing.

5. Formal and substantive examination.

The Registrar will start to examine to see whether there are any formal or substantive deficiencies in the application. In case they object your application, they will inform you in writing about the nature of the problem, you then have the possibility of remedying the deficiencies.

6. Publication on Swissreg.

If the Registrar do not object your application, your trademark will be published on www.swissreg.ch. Anyone can file an objection to the registration up to three months after its publication.

7. Certificate of Registration.

If there is no objection against your trademark, the Registrar will issue the Certificate of Registration.

Renewals of Swiss trademark

Once a trade mark is registered, it is protected for a period of 10 years. We'll generally remind you when protection for your trade mark is about to expire.