¹ This Title ap­plies to European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions and European pat­ents with ef­fect in Switzer­land.

² The oth­er pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply ex­cept where the Con­ven­tion of 5 Oc­to­ber 1973²⁰⁹ on the Grant of European Pat­ents (European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion) or this Title provides oth­er­wise.

³ The text of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion that binds Switzer­land takes pre­ced­ence over this Act.

European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions for which a fil­ing date has been as­signed and European pat­ents have the same ef­fect in Switzer­land as pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions filed in due form with the IPI and pat­ents gran­ted by this In­sti­tute.

A modi­fic­a­tion con­cern­ing the valid­ity of a European pat­ent due to a fi­nal de­cision res­ult­ing from a pro­ced­ure be­fore the European Pat­ent Of­fice has the same ef­fect as a fi­nal judg­ment in a pro­ced­ure in Switzer­land.

¹ Pub­lished European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions do not con­fer on the ap­plic­ant the pro­tec­tion con­ferred by Art­icle 64 of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion.

² However, the in­jured party may, in an ac­tion for dam­ages, claim the loss or dam­age caused by the de­fend­ant from the mo­ment at which the lat­ter be­came aware of the con­tent of the European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion, but at the latest from the date of pub­lic­a­tion of the ap­plic­a­tion by the European Pat­ent Of­fice.

As soon as the men­tion of the grant of the European pat­ent has been pub­lished in the European Pat­ent Bul­let­in, the IPI shall re­cord it in the Swiss Re­gister of European Pat­ents along with the par­tic­u­lars noted in the European Pat­ent Re­gister.

The In­sti­tute shall pub­lish re­gis­tra­tions made in the Swiss Re­gister of European Pat­ents.

¹ The European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion may be con­ver­ted in­to a Swiss pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion:

a.²²³

in the case provided for in Art­icle 135 para­graph 1 let­ter a of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion;

b.

in the case of fail­ure to ob­serve the time lim­it in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 para­graph 2 of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion, where the ori­gin­al ap­plic­a­tion was filed in Itali­an;

c.²²⁴

…

² …²²⁵

¹ Where the re­quest for con­ver­sion is filed in due form and sent in good time to the IPI, the pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion is deemed to have been filed on the date of fil­ing of the European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion.

² The doc­u­ments ac­com­pa­ny­ing the European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion or European pat­ent that were filed with the European Pat­ent Of­fice are deemed to have been filed at the same time with the IPI.

³ The rights at­tached to the European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion re­main val­id.

Where the lan­guage in which the ori­gin­al text of the European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion is writ­ten is not an of­fi­cial Swiss lan­guage, the IPI shall al­low the pat­ent ap­plic­ant a time lim­it with­in which to file a trans­la­tion in an of­fi­cial Swiss lan­guage.

¹ The pro­vi­sions in force for Swiss pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions ap­ply to the pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion arising from the con­ver­sion, sub­ject to Art­icle 137 para­graph 1 of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion.

² The claims of a pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion res­ult­ing from the con­ver­sion of a European pat­ent may not be draf­ted in such a way that the ex­tent of pro­tec­tion con­ferred by the pat­ent is ex­ten­ded.

¹ Where, for one and the same in­ven­tion, a Swiss pat­ent and a European pat­ent with ef­fect in Switzer­land have been gran­ted to the same in­vent­or or to his suc­cessor in title with the same fil­ing or pri­or­ity date, the Swiss pat­ent has no fur­ther ef­fect as from the date on which:

a.

the op­pos­i­tion peri­od against the European pat­ent has ex­pired without an op­pos­i­tion be­ing filed; or

b.

the European pat­ent has been main­tained in op­pos­i­tion pro­ceed­ings by fi­nal de­cision.

² Art­icle 27 ap­plies by ana­logy.

¹ Where, for one and the same in­ven­tion, a pat­ent res­ult­ing from a Swiss or in­ter­na­tion­al pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion (Art. 131 et seq.) and a pat­ent res­ult­ing from a con­ver­ted European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion have been gran­ted to the same in­vent­or or to his suc­cessor in title with the same fil­ing or pri­or­ity date, the first pat­ent has no fur­ther ef­fect from the date on which the pat­ent res­ult­ing from the con­ver­ted European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion was gran­ted.

² Art­icle 27 ap­plies by ana­logy.

A par­tial sur­render of the European pat­ent may not be re­ques­ted so long as op­pos­i­tion to this pat­ent may be filed with the European Pat­ent Of­fice or a fi­nal de­cision has not yet been taken with re­gard to an op­pos­i­tion, a lim­it­a­tion or a re­voc­a­tion.

The court may sus­pend pro­ceed­ings, and in par­tic­u­lar de­fer judg­ment where:

a.

the European Pat­ent Of­fice has not yet taken a fi­nal de­cision on a lim­it­a­tion or re­voc­a­tion of the European pat­ent;

b.

the valid­ity of the European pat­ent is dis­puted and one party provides evid­ence that op­pos­i­tion may still be filed with the European Pat­ent Of­fice or that a fi­nal de­cision has not yet been taken with re­gard to an op­pos­i­tion;

c.

the European Pat­ent Of­fice has not yet taken a fi­nal de­cision re­gard­ing a pe­ti­tion for re­view of the de­cision un­der Art­icle 112a of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion.

¹ If, in the case un­der Art­icle 86, the per­son un­der in­vest­ig­a­tion pleads the nullity of the European pat­ent as a de­fence, the court may al­low him, in­so­far as op­pos­i­tion to the pat­ent may still be filed with the European Pat­ent Of­fice or in­ter­ven­tion in op­pos­i­tion pro­ceed­ings is still per­mit­ted, an ap­pro­pri­ate time lim­it for the fil­ing of op­pos­i­tion or for in­ter­ven­tion in op­pos­i­tion pro­ceed­ings.

² Art­icle 86 para­graph 2 ap­plies by ana­logy.

The Swiss Fed­er­al In­sti­tute of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty shall re­ceive re­quests for leg­al co­oper­a­tion by the European Pat­ent Of­fice and trans­mit them to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

¹ This Title ap­plies to in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tions un­der the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty of 19 June 1970²⁴⁰, for which the IPI acts as Re­ceiv­ing Of­fice, Des­ig­nated Of­fice or Elec­ted Of­fice.²⁴¹

² The oth­er pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply ex­cept where the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty or this Title provide oth­er­wise.

³ The text of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion that binds Switzer­land takes pre­ced­ence over this Act.

The In­sti­tute acts as Re­ceiv­ing Of­fice un­der Art­icle 2 of the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty in re­spect of in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tions filed by Swiss na­tion­als or per­sons hav­ing their prin­cip­al place of busi­ness or dom­i­cile in Switzer­land.

¹ The Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty, sup­ple­men­ted by this Act, ap­plies to the pro­ced­ure be­fore the IPI act­ing as Re­ceiv­ing Of­fice.

² In ad­di­tion to the fees pre­scribed by the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty, the in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion shall give rise to the pay­ment of a trans­mit­tal fee col­lec­ted by the IPI.

³ Art­icle 13 does not ap­ply.

The In­sti­tute acts as Des­ig­nated Of­fice and Elec­ted Of­fice un­der Art­icle 2 of the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty in re­spect of in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tions which seek pro­tec­tion for an in­ven­tion in Switzer­land, where such ap­plic­a­tions do not have the ef­fect of a European pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion.

An in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion for which the IPI acts as Des­ig­nated Of­fice has the same ef­fect in Switzer­land as a Swiss pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion filed in due form with the IPI if a fil­ing date has been as­signed to it.

The right of pri­or­ity un­der Art­icle 17 may also be claimed for an in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion if the first ap­plic­a­tion has been filed in Switzer­land or only in re­spect of Switzer­land.

Art­icles 111 and 112 of this Act ap­ply by ana­logy to in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tions pub­lished un­der Art­icle 21 of the Pat­ent Co­oper­a­tion Treaty for which the IPI is the Des­ig­nated Of­fice.

With­in 30 months of the fil­ing or pri­or­ity date, the ap­plic­ant must:

a.

provide writ­ten con­firm­a­tion of the name of the in­vent­or;

b.

provide in­form­a­tion on the source (Art. 49a);

c.

pay the fil­ing fee;

d.

file a trans­la­tion in an of­fi­cial Swiss lan­guage, provided the in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion is not made in such a lan­guage.

¹ Where, in re­spect of one and the same in­ven­tion, two pat­ents hav­ing the same pri­or­ity date have been gran­ted to the same in­vent­or or to his suc­cessor in title, the pat­ent res­ult­ing from the na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion ceases to have ef­fect as of the date of the grant of the pat­ent res­ult­ing from the in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion, ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the pri­or­ity of the na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion is claimed for the pat­ent res­ult­ing from the in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion or wheth­er the pri­or­ity of the in­ter­na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion is claimed for the pat­ent res­ult­ing from the na­tion­al ap­plic­a­tion.

² Art­icle 27 ap­plies ac­cord­ingly.

¹ The In­sti­tute shall on ap­plic­a­tion grant a sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate (cer­ti­fic­ate) for the act­ive in­gredi­ents or com­bin­a­tion of act­ive in­gredi­ents of medi­cin­al products. A cer­ti­fic­ate will only be is­sued if no pae­di­at­ric sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140tpara­graph 1 is avail­able.²⁵⁷

^1bis An act­ive in­gredi­ent is a sub­stance of chem­ic­al or bio­lo­gic­al ori­gin con­trib­ut­ing to the com­pos­i­tion of a medi­cin­al product which has a medi­cin­al ef­fect on the or­gan­ism. An act­ive in­gredi­ent com­pos­i­tion is a com­bin­a­tion of sev­er­al sub­stances, all of which have a medi­cin­al ef­fect on the or­gan­ism.²⁵⁸

² Act­ive in­gredi­ents or com­bin­a­tions of act­ive in­gredi­ents are re­ferred to in this Sec­tion as products.

¹ The cer­ti­fic­ate is gran­ted if, at the time of the ap­plic­a­tion:

a.

the product as such, a pro­cess for man­u­fac­tur­ing it or a use of it is pro­tec­ted by a pat­ent;

b.²⁵⁹

a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product is au­thor­ised in Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9 of the Thera­peut­ic Products Act (TPA) of 15 Decem­ber 2000.²⁶⁰

² It is gran­ted based on the first au­thor­isa­tion.²⁶¹

¹ The pro­pri­et­or of the pat­ent has the right to the cer­ti­fic­ate.

² Only one cer­ti­fic­ate shall be gran­ted for each product.²⁶²

³ In the event that two or more pro­pri­et­ors of a pat­ent file ap­plic­a­tions for the same product based on dif­fer­ent pat­ents and no cer­ti­fic­ate has yet been gran­ted, the cer­ti­fic­ate may be gran­ted to each ap­plic­ant.²⁶³

¹ The pro­tec­tion of a cer­ti­fic­ate ex­tends, with­in the lim­its of the scope of pro­tec­tion con­ferred by the pat­ent, to any use of the product as a medi­cin­al product that has been au­thor­ised be­fore the ex­piry of the cer­ti­fic­ate.

² The cer­ti­fic­ate grants the same rights as the pat­ent and is sub­ject to the same re­stric­tions.

¹ The cer­ti­fic­ate takes ef­fect on ex­piry of the max­im­um term of the pat­ent for a peri­od equal to the peri­od which elapses between the date of fil­ing un­der Art­icle 56 and the date of the first au­thor­isa­tion of the medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product in Switzer­land, minus five years.²⁶⁴

² It is val­id for no more than five years.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify that the au­thor­isa­tion of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product gran­ted in the European Eco­nom­ic Area (EEA) con­sti­tutes the first au­thor­isa­tion with­in the mean­ing of para­graph 1 if it is gran­ted earli­er than the first au­thor­isa­tion in Switzer­land.²⁶⁵

¹ The ap­plic­a­tion for the grant of a cer­ti­fic­ate must be filed:

a.

with­in six months of the first au­thor­isa­tion of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product in Switzer­land;

b.

with­in six months of the grant of the pat­ent if this was gran­ted later than the first au­thor­isa­tion.²⁶⁶

² In the event that the time lim­it is not met, the IPI shall re­fuse the ap­plic­a­tion.

The In­sti­tute grants the cer­ti­fic­ate by en­ter­ing it in the Pat­ent Re­gister.

¹ The cer­ti­fic­ate is sub­ject to the pay­ment of an ap­plic­a­tion fee and re­new­al fees.

² The re­new­al fees must be paid in ad­vance in one single pay­ment for the full term of the cer­ti­fic­ate.²⁶⁷

³ …²⁶⁸

¹ The cer­ti­fic­ate lapses where:

a.

the own­er sur­renders it by a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion to the IPI;

b.

the an­nu­al fees have not been paid in due time;

c.²⁶⁹ all au­thor­isa­tions of medi­cin­al products con­tain­ing the product are re­called (Art. 16a TPA²⁷⁰).

² If all au­thor­isa­tions are sus­pen­ded, the cer­ti­fic­ate is also sus­pen­ded. Sus­pen­sion does not in­ter­rupt the term of the cer­ti­fic­ate.²⁷¹

³ The Swiss Agency for Thera­peut­ic Products shall no­ti­fy the IPI of any with­draw­al or sus­pen­sion of the au­thor­isa­tions.²⁷²

¹ The cer­ti­fic­ate is null and void where:

a.²⁷³

it was gran­ted con­trary to Art­icle 140b, Art­icle 140c para­graph 2, Art­icle 146 para­graph 1 or Art­icle 147 para­graph 1;

b.

the pat­ent lapses be­fore its max­im­um term ex­pires (Art­icle 15);

c.

the pat­ent is de­clared null and void;

d.

the pat­ent is lim­ited to the ex­tent that the product for which the cer­ti­fic­ate was gran­ted is no longer covered by the claims;

e.

after the lapse of the pat­ent, grounds ex­ist which would have jus­ti­fied the de­clar­a­tion of nullity of the pat­ent un­der let­ter c or a lim­it­a­tion un­der let­ter d.

² Any per­son may bring an ac­tion to have the cer­ti­fic­ate de­clared null and void be­fore the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for de­clar­ing the nullity of the pat­ent.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall lay down the pro­ced­ure for the grant of cer­ti­fic­ates and for their entry in the Pat­ent Re­gister and the IPI’s pub­lic­a­tions.

² It shall take ac­count of the reg­u­la­tions of the European Uni­on.²⁷⁴

In­so­far as the pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing the cer­ti­fic­ate do not con­tain any reg­u­la­tions, the pro­vi­sions of the first, second, third and fifth Titles of this Act ap­ply by ana­logy.

¹ The IPI shall ex­tend the term of pro­tec­tion (Art. 140e) of cer­ti­fic­ates is­sued by six months if the au­thor­isa­tion (Art. 9 TPA²⁷⁶) of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product:

a.

con­tains con­firm­a­tion that the in­form­a­tion on the medi­cin­al product re­flects the res­ults of all stud­ies per­formed in ac­cord­ance with the pae­di­at­ric test concept (Art. 11 para. 2 let. a no 6 TPA) con­sidered in the au­thor­isa­tion pro­cess; and

b.

was ap­plied for no later than six months after the ap­plic­a­tion for ini­tial au­thor­isa­tion in the European Eco­nom­ic Area of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product in which the cor­res­pond­ing medi­cin­al product in­form­a­tion re­flects the res­ults of all stud­ies per­formed in ac­cord­ance with the pae­di­at­ric test concept con­sidered for the au­thor­isa­tion.

² A cer­ti­fic­ate’s term of pro­tec­tion may only be ex­ten­ded once.

¹ An ap­plic­a­tion to ex­tend a cer­ti­fic­ate’s term of pro­tec­tion may be made with the ap­plic­a­tion for is­su­ance of a cer­ti­fic­ate at the earli­est and two years be­fore the cer­ti­fic­ate ex­pires at the latest.

² If the dead­line is not re­spec­ted, the IPI shall re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion.

The IPI shall ex­tend the term of pro­tec­tion of the cer­ti­fic­ate by en­ter­ing this in the Pat­ent Re­gister.

A fee shall be paid to ex­tend a cer­ti­fic­ate’s term of pro­tec­tion.

¹ The IPI may re­voke the ex­ten­sion of a cer­ti­fic­ate’s term of pro­tec­tion if this was gran­ted in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 140nor if it sub­sequently con­tra­venes Art­icle 140n.

² Any per­son may lodge a re­quest with the IPI for the ex­ten­sion of a term of pro­tec­tion to be re­voked.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure for ex­tend­ing the terms of pro­tec­tion of cer­ti­fic­ates, for re­gis­ter­ing them in the Pat­ent Re­gister and for pub­lic­a­tion by the IPI.

² It shall take in­to ac­count European Uni­on reg­u­la­tions.

¹ Upon ap­plic­a­tion the IPI shall is­sue a pae­di­at­ric sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate (pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate) for act­ive in­gredi­ents or act­ive in­gredi­ent com­pos­i­tions of medi­cin­al products with a pro­tec­tion peri­od of six months from the ex­piry of the longest term of the pat­ent, provided the au­thor­isa­tion (Art. 9 TPA²⁷⁸) of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product:

a.

con­tains con­firm­a­tion that the in­form­a­tion on the medi­cin­al product re­flects the res­ults of all stud­ies per­formed in ac­cord­ance with the pae­di­at­ric test concept (Art. 11 para. 2 let. a no 6 TPA) con­sidered in the au­thor­isa­tion pro­cess; and

b.

was ap­plied for no later than six months after the ap­plic­a­tion for ini­tial au­thor­isa­tion in the European Eco­nom­ic Area of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product in which the cor­res­pond­ing medi­cin­al product in­form­a­tion re­flects the res­ults of all stud­ies per­formed in ac­cord­ance with the pae­di­at­ric test concept con­sidered for the au­thor­isa­tion.

² A pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate shall only be is­sued if no sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140aex­ists.

³ Art­icle 140b para­graph 1 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

⁴ The term of pro­tec­tion of a pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate may not be ex­ten­ded.

¹ The pat­ent hold­er has a claim to the pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate.

² The pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate shall be is­sued once only for each product.

³ If however ow­ing to the ex­ist­ence of dif­fer­ent pat­ents sev­er­al pat­ent hold­ers sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for the same product, the pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate may be is­sued to each ap­plic­ant if the ad­dress­ee’s con­sent is provided with the con­firm­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140tpara­graph 1 let­ter a.

¹ The ap­plic­a­tion for the grant of a pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate may be made two years be­fore the end of the max­im­um term of the pat­ent at the latest.

² If the dead­line is not re­spec­ted, the IPI shall re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion.

A fee shall be paid for the pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate.

¹ The pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate is null and void when:

a.

it is is­sued in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 140t or if it sub­sequently con­tra­venes Art­icle 140t;

b.

it is is­sued in con­tra­ven­tion of Art­icle 140u para­graph 2;

c.

the pat­ent lapses be­fore the end of its max­im­um term (Art. 15);

d.

the pat­ent is found to be null and void;

e.

the pat­ent is lim­ited to such an ex­tent that its claims no longer cov­er the product for which the pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate was gran­ted;

f.

after the pat­ent has lapsed, there are grounds which would have jus­ti­fied a de­clar­a­tion of nullity un­der let­ter d or a lim­it­a­tion un­der let­ter e.

² Any per­son may bring an ac­tion for the pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate to be de­clared null and void be­fore the au­thor­ity com­pet­ent to de­clare the pat­ent null and void.

Art­icles 140a para­graph 1^bis and 2, 140d, 140g, 140i, 140l para­graph 1 and 140m ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The In­sti­tute shall on ap­plic­a­tion grant a sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate (cer­ti­fic­ate) for act­ive in­gredi­ents or com­bin­a­tion of act­ive in­gredi­ents of plant pro­tec­tion products.

² Art­icles 140a para­graph 2 and 140bto 140m ap­ply by ana­logy.

³ In­gredi­ents are sub­stances and mi­croor­gan­isms, in­clud­ing vir­uses, with a gen­er­al or spe­cif­ic ef­fect:

a.

against harm­ful or­gan­isms;

b.

on plants, parts of plants or plant products.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall take the ne­ces­sary meas­ures to im­ple­ment this Act.

² It may, in par­tic­u­lar, en­act reg­u­la­tions on the form­a­tion of the ex­amin­ing sec­tions and op­pos­i­tion di­vi­sions, on the scope of their busi­ness and pro­ced­ures as well as on time lim­its and fees.²⁸²

Pat­ents that have not yet lapsed when the Amend­ment to this Act of 22 June 2007 comes in­to force are sub­ject to the new law from that date. Grounds for nullity con­tin­ue to be gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.²⁸⁴

¹ Pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions that are pending when the Amend­ment to this Act of 22 June 2007 comes in­to force are sub­ject to the new law from that date.

² However, the fol­low­ing are also gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law:

a.

non-pre­ju­di­cial dis­clos­ures at in­ter­na­tion­al ex­hib­i­tions;

b.

pat­entab­il­ity, if the re­quire­ments are more fa­vour­able un­der the pre­vi­ous law.

¹ Li­ab­il­ity un­der civil law is reg­u­lated by the pro­vi­sions in force at the time of the act con­cerned.

² Art­icle 75 and Art­icle 77 para­graph 5 ap­ply only to li­cence agree­ments that have been con­cluded or con­firmed after the Amend­ment to this Act of 22 June 2007 comes in­to force.²⁸⁸

¹ A sup­ple­ment­ary pro­tec­tion cer­ti­fic­ate may be gran­ted for any product which, on the Amend­ment to this Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1998²⁹⁰ com­ing in­to force, is pro­tec­ted by a pat­ent and for which an au­thor­isa­tion to place it on the mar­ket in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140b was gran­ted after 1 Janu­ary 1985.

² The ap­plic­a­tion for the grant of a cer­ti­fic­ate must be filed with­in the six months of the Amend­ment to this Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1998 com­ing in­to force. In the event that the time lim­it is not met, the IPI shall re­fuse the ap­plic­a­tion.

¹ Cer­ti­fic­ates may also be gran­ted on the basis of pat­ents that have lapsed at the end of their max­im­um term between 8 Feb­ru­ary 1997 and the Amend­ment to this Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1998²⁹² com­ing in­to force.

² The term of pro­tec­tion of the cer­ti­fic­ate is cal­cu­lated in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 140e; its ef­fects do not be­gin un­til the pub­lic­a­tion of the ap­plic­a­tion for the grant of a cer­ti­fic­ate.

³ The ap­plic­a­tion must be filed with­in two months of the Amend­ment to this Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1998 com­ing in­to force. In the event that the time lim­it is not met, the IPI shall re­fuse the ap­plic­a­tion.

⁴ Art­icle 48 para­graphs 1, 2 and 4 ap­ply cor­res­pond­ingly for the time peri­od between the lapse of the pat­ent and the pub­lic­a­tion of the ap­plic­a­tion.

¹ No trans­la­tion of the pat­ent spe­cific­a­tions un­der Art­icle 113 para­graph 1²⁹⁴ is re­quired for European pat­ents which are not pub­lished in one of the of­fi­cial Swiss lan­guages if the men­tion of the grant of the European pat­ent, or in the case of the main­ten­ance of the pat­ent in amended form the pub­lic­a­tion of the de­cision re­gard­ing an op­pos­i­tion, or in the case of a lim­it­a­tion of the pat­ent the men­tion of the lim­it­a­tion has been pub­lished in the European Pat­ent Bul­let­in less than three months pri­or to the Amend­ment to this Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005 com­ing in­to force.

² Art­icles 114²⁹⁵ and 116²⁹⁶ also ap­ply after the Amend­ment to this Act of 16 Decem­ber 2005 comes in­to force to trans­la­tions which have either been sent to the de­fend­ant in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 112²⁹⁷, or made pub­lic by the IPI or which have been sub­mit­ted to the IPI un­der Art­icle 113²⁹⁸.

¹ For a peri­od of five years after the amend­ment of 18 March 2016³⁰⁰ to this Act comes in­to force, the ap­plic­a­tion for re­new­al of the term of pro­tec­tion of a cer­ti­fic­ate may be sub­mit­ted no later than six months be­fore its ex­piry.

² For a peri­od of five years after this amend­ment comes in­to force, the ap­plic­a­tion for a pae­di­at­ric cer­ti­fic­ate may be made at the latest six months be­fore the end of the max­im­um term of the pat­ent.

³ If the au­thor­isa­tion (Art. 9 TPA³⁰¹) of a medi­cin­al product con­tain­ing the product (Art. 140n para. 1 in­tro­duct­ory sen­tence and 140t para. 1 in­tro­duct­ory sen­tence) is ap­plied for with­in six months of this amend­ment com­ing in­to force, then Art­icles 140n para­graph 1 let­ter b and 140t para­graph 1 let­ter b do not ap­ply.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 1956³⁰²
Art. 89 para. 2, 90 para. 2 and 3, 91 para. 2 and 3, 96 para. 1 and 3, 101 para. 1, 105 para. 3: 1 Oc­to­ber 1959³⁰³