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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Jan 25, 2017 (Newsletter Issue 2/17)
Switzerland
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Procedures before IPI Harmonised/New Fee Ordinance


On December 2, 2016, the Federal Council adopted amendments to the Trade Mark Ordinance, the Design Ordinance and the Patent Ordinance. These amendments harmonise procedures before the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) to the extent permitted by applicable law. This is to simplify the system. The Federal Council has, at the same time, approved the formal total revision of the IPI's Fee Ordinance. The ordinance contains the fees applicable from January 1, 2017, for the revised Trade Mark Protection Act.

Many of the amendments are of an editorial nature and have no implications for applicants. These are the most important substantive changes:
- New rules and practice concerning the date of receipt of mailed items are to apply uniformly: for domestic mail with a legible postmark, the submission date will be considered the postmark date; if the postmark is illegible or missing, the submission date will officially be one working day prior to the date on which the item was received by the IPI calculated retrospectively for items sent by A Mail (first class) and three working days prior to the date on which the item was received by the IPI calculated retrospectively for items sent by B Mail (second class). For foreign mail, the submission date will officially be one working day prior to the date on which the item was received by the IPI calculated retrospectively.
- For joint applicants or owners of an IP right who have not designated a common representative or an addressee, the IPI will choose one of them to be the addressee. However, if one of the applicants or rights owners opposes this choice, the IPI must expressly request the parties concerned to designate an addressee themselves.
- Under the amended patent legislation, it will be possible for a licensee to submit an application for the registration of a license. Prior to this amendment, only the patent owner could request the registration – which is not the case under trade mark and design legislation.
- A surcharge will apply under the amended trade mark legislation if the renewal fee is paid after the trade mark has expired. This is already the case under design legislation. The surcharge obligation has, until this change, been linked to the date on which the request for renewal was submitted.
- Class fees will no longer be reimbursed if the trade mark is not registered.

For further information, please see here

Source: www.ige.ch