More on Switzerland

The SPC Blog welcomes this contribution from Professor Ulrich M. Gassner, which builds on the blog's earlier posting on SPCs in Switzerland. Professor Gassner is attached to the Institute of Medical Devices Law in the University of Augsburg's Faculty of Law. You can contact him by email here. Writes Professor Gassner:

"Being neither an EU member nor an EEA country, Switzerland has set up its own SPC legislation. It is deliberately modelled on the EC Regulations in order to keep pace with the EC standards of protecting innovative products and research activities.

Consequently Swiss Patent Law provides inter alia for the same duration of the certificate. The only big difference is that the certificate may be granted only if a marketing authorization of the product in Switzerland has been issued. A first authorization in the EU does not count in this respect. Apart from that, there are no significant differences between the mode of operation of SPCs in Switzerland and in the jurisdictions that belong to the EU.

Note that the content of the notice on the website of theSwiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE), available only in German, is also laid down in Article 140c para 3 of the Swiss Patent Act."