Patent Attorney Ordinance
(PatAO)

This Or­din­ance reg­u­lates:

a.

the re­quire­ments to be ful­filled by a high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion in nat­ur­al sci­ences or en­gin­eer­ing (Art. 2 let. a Pa­tAA);

b.

the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion and the re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tions (Art. 6–8 Pa­tAA);

c.

the re­quire­ments con­cern­ing prac­tic­al train­ing and the re­cog­ni­tion of pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence ac­quired abroad (Art. 9 Pa­tAA);

d.

the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister (Art. 11–15 Pa­tAA).

¹A high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion in nat­ur­al sci­ences or en­gin­eer­ing must be ob­tained by com­plet­ing a full-time study course with a min­im­um dur­a­tion of three years or a part-time study course of equi­val­ent study dur­a­tion. A min­im­um of 80 per­cent of the course hours re­quired to ob­tain this qual­i­fic­a­tion must be de­voted to nat­ur­al sci­ences or en­gin­eer­ing sub­jects.

²The fol­low­ing sub­jects in par­tic­u­lar are con­sidered nat­ur­al sci­ences or en­gin­eer­ing sub­jects: civil en­gin­eer­ing, bio­chem­istry, bio­logy, bi­o­tech­no­logy, chem­istry, elec­tron­ics, elec­tric­al en­gin­eer­ing, in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy, mech­an­ic­al en­gin­eer­ing, math­em­at­ics, medi­cine, phar­macy and phys­ics.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil as­signs to the joint as­so­ci­ation (Ex­am­in­a­tion Board) of the As­so­ci­ation of Swiss and European Pat­ent At­tor­neys in Private Prac­tice (VESPA), the As­so­ci­ation of Pat­ent At­tor­neys in Swiss In­dustry (VI­PS) and the As­so­ci­ation of Swiss Pat­ent and Trade­mark At­tor­neys (ASPTA) the fol­low­ing du­ties:

a.

ad­min­is­tra­tion of the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion.

b.

is­su­ing guidelines for the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion.

c.

ap­point­ment of ex­am­iners.

d.

de­cid­ing on the passing or fail­ing of the ex­am­in­a­tion.

e.

de­cid­ing on the re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tions.

f.

es­tab­lish­ing fee reg­u­la­tions and sub­mit­ting them to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for ap­prov­al.

g.

main­ten­ance of an of­fice.

²The Ex­am­in­a­tion Board is fin­anced by the fees levied for its rul­ings and ser­vices and by con­tri­bu­tions from its mem­bers.

³The du­ties of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Board are per­formed by the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee.

¹The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee con­sists of two rep­res­ent­at­ives each of the VESPA, VI­PS and ASPTA pat­ent at­tor­ney as­so­ci­ations. They are elec­ted by the Ex­ec­ut­ive Board of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Board.

²The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee is quor­ate when the chair or his or her deputy and at least three oth­er mem­bers are present.

³The de­cisions of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee are reached by a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers present. The chair also has a vote; where a vote is tied, his or her vote or, where he or she is ab­sent, the vote of his or her deputy, shall be de­cis­ive.

⁴The Pres­id­ent of the Fed­er­al Pat­ent Court or a leg­al mem­ber of this court des­ig­nated by the Pres­id­ent shall at­tend the meet­ings of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee as an ob­serv­er in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city. The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may in­vite oth­er per­sons without vot­ing rights to the meet­ings.

¹Pat­ent at­tor­neys re­gistered in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister and oth­er ex­perts with proven know­ledge in the sub­ject areas to be ex­amined (Art. 7), such as lec­tur­ers in high­er edu­ca­tion, at­tor­neys and judges, shall be ap­poin­ted by the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee as ex­am­iners.

²Ex­am­iners may not sim­ul­tan­eously be mem­bers of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee.

³Ex­am­iners are ap­poin­ted for a peri­od of two years. They may be re­appoin­ted.

¹Re­spons­ib­il­ity for the su­per­vi­sion of the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion lies with the State Sec­ret­ari­at Edu­ca­tion, Re­search and In­nov­a­tion (SERI)².

²SERI ap­proves the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee’s guidelines for the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion.

In the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion, spe­cial­ised know­ledge is ex­amined in the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

European and in­ter­na­tion­al pat­ent law;

b.

Swiss pat­ent law;

c.

Swiss pro­ced­ur­al and or­gan­isa­tion­al law rel­ev­ant to in­dus­tri­al prop­erty rights;

d.

trade mark, design, copy­right, com­pet­i­tion and civil law to the ex­tent re­quired for work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land.

¹The Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion con­sists of four parts. The can­did­ate is free to de­cide on the or­der in which the parts of the ex­am­in­a­tion are com­pleted.

²Parts 1 and 2 (Art. 7 let. a) are con­duc­ted in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Coun­cil of the European Pat­ent Or­gan­isa­tion (Art. 134a para. 1 let. b of the European Pat­ent Con­ven­tion of 5 Oc­to­ber 1973, re­vised on 29 Novem­ber 2000³) on the European qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion for pro­fes­sion­al rep­res­ent­at­ives be­fore the European Pat­ent Of­fice. They cov­er the fol­low­ing:

a.

Part 1: draft­ing of pat­ent claims and the in­tro­duct­ory part of a pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion (Ex­am­in­a­tion Pa­per A);

b.

Part 2: reply­ing to an of­fi­cial com­mu­nic­a­tion in which pri­or art has been cited (Ex­am­in­a­tion Pa­per B).

³Part 3 (Art. 7 let. a–c) cov­ers:

a.

Swiss pat­ent law in­clud­ing the spe­cial pro­vi­sions per­tain­ing to in­ter­na­tion­al pro­ced­ures;

b.

the Swiss pro­vi­sions in the area of ad­min­is­trat­ive, crim­in­al and civil pro­ced­ure as well as the or­gan­isa­tion of au­thor­it­ies and court ap­plic­able to pat­ent mat­ters.

⁴Part 4 (Art. 7 let. d) cov­ers trade mark, design, copy­right, com­pet­i­tion and civil law to the ex­tent re­quired for work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land.

¹Parts 3 and 4 of the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion are held at least once a year. If less than four ap­plic­a­tions have been re­ceived, the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may post­pone the ex­am­in­a­tion, whereby there may be no more than 25 months between two ex­am­in­a­tion dates of any ex­am­in­a­tion part.

²The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee de­term­ines the ap­plic­a­tion dead­lines, the ex­am­in­a­tion dates and the ex­am­in­a­tion loc­a­tion and pub­lishes these.

³Neither Part 3 nor Part 4 of the ex­am­in­a­tion may be split across more than one ex­am­in­a­tion date.

¹Ad­mis­sion to the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion shall be gran­ted to:

a.

any per­son who, on ap­ply­ing to take the ex­am­in­a­tion, can provide proof of the re­quis­ite high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion (Art. 2) and of the re­quis­ite prac­tic­al train­ing (Art. 27–30); and

b.

has paid the ex­am­in­a­tion fee by the ap­plic­a­tion dead­line.

²Any per­son who ap­plies for ad­mis­sion to the ex­am­in­a­tion must sub­mit the fol­low­ing:

a.

the doc­u­ments evid­en­cing his or her high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion;

b.

a cer­ti­fic­ate con­firm­ing the com­ple­tion of prac­tic­al train­ing (Art. 30).

³The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may re­quire a can­did­ate, the can­did­ate’s in­sti­tu­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion or the can­did­ate’s su­per­visor (Art. 28) to provide ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion or proof.

⁴The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall de­cide on ad­mis­sion to the ex­am­in­a­tion by is­su­ing a rul­ing.

¹The can­did­ate may take the ex­am­in­a­tion parts ad­min­istered by the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee in Ger­man, French or Itali­an.

²The can­did­ate must in­dic­ate the ex­am­in­a­tion lan­guage on ap­ply­ing to take the ex­am­in­a­tion.

¹Parts 1 and 2 must be com­pleted with­in the frame­work of the European qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion con­duc­ted by the European Pat­ent Of­fice.

²In ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may of­fer sub­sti­tute ex­am­in­a­tions that are equi­val­ent to Ex­am­in­a­tion Pa­pers A and B of the European qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

¹The ex­am­in­a­tion ques­tions are pre­pared by at least two ex­am­iners. They es­tab­lish the mark­ing cri­ter­ia.

²The ex­am­iners must sub­mit the ex­am­in­a­tion ques­tions and the mark­ing cri­ter­ia to the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee for ap­prov­al.

³The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee en­sures the ex­am­in­a­tion pa­pers are trans­lated in­to the re­spect­ive lan­guages for which ap­plic­a­tions have been re­ceived.

¹Part 3 of the ex­am­in­a­tion is con­duc­ted in writ­ing.

²At least one of the ex­am­iners who pre­pared this part of the ex­am­in­a­tion must be present. He or she ad­vises the can­did­ate on the de­tails per­tain­ing to the con­duct of the ex­am­in­a­tion pri­or to com­mence­ment of the ex­am­in­a­tion.

³This part of the ex­am­in­a­tion shall have a dur­a­tion of six hours.

⁴The can­did­ate shall provide the an­swers to the ex­am­in­a­tion in an­onymised form.

⁵The ex­am­iners en­trus­ted with mark­ing the ex­am­in­a­tions shall de­term­ine their as­sess­ment jointly.

¹Part 4 of the ex­am­in­a­tion is con­duc­ted or­ally.

²Two of the ex­am­iners who pre­pared this part of the ex­am­in­a­tion must be present for Part 4.

³This part of the ex­am­in­a­tion shall have a dur­a­tion of one hour. In jus­ti­fied cases, it may be ex­ten­ded to a max­im­um of 75 minutes.

⁴The ex­am­iners shall de­term­ine their as­sess­ment jointly.

¹The Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion is not pub­lic.

²The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may grant per­sons with a proven jus­ti­fied in­terest to be present dur­ing the ex­am­in­a­tion.

³The mem­bers of the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee and SERI rep­res­ent­at­ives are per­mit­ted to be present ex of­fi­cio.

¹Parts 1 and 2 of the ex­am­in­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 para­graph 1 are deemed to have been passed when the per­son:

a.

has passed both pa­pers A and B of the ex­am­in­a­tion; or

b.

has passed the European qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion in full.

²Parts 1 and 2 of the sub­sti­tute ex­am­in­a­tion taken in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 para­graph 2 are deemed to have been passed if both parts of the ex­am­in­a­tion have been passed in­di­vidu­ally.

³Any per­son who twice fails one part of the sub­sti­tute ex­am­in­a­tion taken in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 para­graph 2 shall be ex­cluded from any fur­ther ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹Parts 3 and 4 of the ex­am­in­a­tion are deemed to have been passed if both parts of the ex­am­in­a­tion have been passed in­di­vidu­ally.

²Any per­son who twice fails one of the ex­am­in­a­tion parts shall be ex­cluded from any fur­ther ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹Can­did­ates may with­draw their ap­plic­a­tion up to 14 days pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the ex­am­in­a­tion. The ex­am­in­a­tion fee will only be re­fun­ded in this case.

²After this time, with­draw­al is only pos­sible where the can­did­ate has a val­id ex­cuse. In par­tic­u­lar, the fol­low­ing are deemed to be val­id ex­cuses:

a.

ma­ter­nity;

b.

ill­ness or ac­ci­dent;

c.

death of a closely re­lated per­son;

d.

un­fore­seen mil­it­ary, civil de­fence or ci­vil­ian ser­vice.

³No­tice of with­draw­al must be giv­en im­me­di­ately in writ­ing and the reas­ons there­for must be doc­u­mented.

⁴Can­did­ates who do not with­draw from the ex­am­in­a­tion in due time in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 or who do not have a val­id ex­cuse are deemed not to have passed the rel­ev­ant part of the ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁵Where a can­did­ate with­draws, with a val­id ex­cuse, from an ex­am­in­a­tion that has already com­menced, the can­did­ate must ap­ply for the next ex­am­in­a­tion date, or this part of the ex­am­in­a­tion will be deemed not to have been passed.

⁶The can­did­ate must re­sit the in­ter­rup­ted ex­am­in­a­tion in full and pay the ex­am­in­a­tion fee again.

¹The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall de­cide at a meet­ing on wheth­er the ex­am­in­a­tion parts have been passed. A rep­res­ent­at­ive of SERI shall be in­vited to at­tend this meet­ing.

²The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall no­ti­fy the can­did­ate, with­in three months, in a writ­ten rul­ing of the res­ult of the ex­am­in­a­tion parts taken by him or her.

³The Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion has been passed when all four ex­am­in­a­tion parts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 are deemed to have been passed. In this case, the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee is­sues con­firm­a­tion in the form of a cer­ti­fic­ate.

¹The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall en­sure that all ex­am­in­a­tion scripts are re­tained for a peri­od of two years fol­low­ing no­ti­fic­a­tion of the ex­am­in­a­tion res­ults.

²Where an ob­jec­tion is filed, the ex­am­in­a­tion scripts must be re­tained un­til the de­cision on the ob­jec­tion has be­come leg­ally bind­ing.

³The can­did­ate may re­quest to view his or her ex­am­in­a­tion scripts re­tained in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 or 2.

¹Where it is es­tab­lished that the can­did­ate ob­tained ad­mis­sion to the ex­am­in­a­tion un­der false pre­tences by provid­ing in­cor­rect or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion, the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall de­clare the passed ex­am­in­a­tion parts to be in­val­id.

²Where a can­did­ate at­tempts to in­flu­ence the ex­am­in­a­tion res­ult dur­ing an ex­am­in­a­tion by dis­hon­est means, the ex­am­iner shall re­port this to the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee. The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall de­cide wheth­er, as a res­ult, the re­spect­ive ex­am­in­a­tion part is deemed not to have been passed. Where a can­did­ate is caught at­tempt­ing to cheat dur­ing an ex­am­in­a­tion, he or she may com­plete the ex­am­in­a­tion sub­ject to re­ser­va­tion.

¹The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee is re­spons­ible for the re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tions.

²It de­cides by is­su­ing a writ­ten rul­ing on the re­cog­ni­tion of the for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion and on the con­tent and con­duct of a qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

³The Agree­ment of 21 June 1999⁴ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion and the European Com­munity and its Mem­ber States on the Free Move­ment of Per­sons ap­plies to the re­cog­ni­tion of for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tions for the per­sons sub­ject to this agree­ment.

¹Any per­son who seeks to have a for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion re­cog­nised must sub­mit a writ­ten ap­plic­a­tion to the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee.

²The ap­plic­a­tion must in­clude doc­u­ment­a­tion evid­en­cing:

a.

that the ap­plic­ant has taken a pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion;

b.

the spe­cial­ised know­ledge ex­amined in the pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion.

¹Where the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee does not re­cog­nise the for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion or re­cog­nises it only in part, the ap­plic­ant may take a qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

²Any per­son who can, at the time of ap­plic­a­tion, provide proof of a high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion (Art. 2) and prac­tic­al train­ing (Art. 27–30), shall be ad­mit­ted to the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

³The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee may re­quire the ap­plic­ant to sub­mit doc­u­ment­a­tion on the nature and dur­a­tion of the pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence ac­quired by him or her.

¹The qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion cov­ers the spe­cial­ised know­ledge which forms the sub­ject mat­ter of the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion and which has not already been ex­amined in the course of edu­ca­tion in the coun­try in which the pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion was taken.

²In de­term­in­ing the con­tent of the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion, the ap­plic­ant’s rel­ev­ant pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­i­ence may be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

³The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall de­cide on a case by case basis on the form, con­duct and mark­ing of the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁴The pro­vi­sions per­tain­ing to the ex­am­in­a­tion lan­guage (Art. 11), with­draw­al (Art. 19) and sanc­tions (Art. 22) ap­ply by ana­logy to the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁵The Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee shall no­ti­fy the ap­plic­ant in a writ­ten rul­ing of the res­ult of the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion taken by him or her with­in three months.

⁶Any per­son who twice fails the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion or parts of it shall be ex­cluded from fur­ther ex­am­in­a­tions.

¹Prac­tic­al train­ing al­lows the can­did­ate to ob­tain, un­der su­per­vi­sion, prac­tic­al ex­per­i­ence that en­ables him or her to work in­de­pend­ently as a pat­ent at­tor­ney un­der the Pa­tAA.

²With­in the scope of ob­tain­ing the re­quis­ite prac­tic­al train­ing, the can­did­ate shall, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

ac­quire spe­cial­ised know­ledge in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 and ap­ply it in prac­tice;

b.

be­come fa­mil­i­ar with the au­thor­it­ies com­pet­ent for pat­ent mat­ters in Switzer­land;

c.

learn to draft pat­ent ap­plic­a­tions on the basis of doc­u­ment­a­tion provided by a cli­ent and rep­res­ent the cli­ent in grant pro­ced­ures;

d.

be­come fa­mil­i­ar with the form­al­it­ies and time lim­its for the pro­ced­ure of the grant of a pat­ent in Switzer­land.

The fol­low­ing per­sons may su­per­vise prac­tic­al train­ing:

a.

any per­son who is re­gistered in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister as a pat­ent at­tor­ney;

b.

any per­son who has worked pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land for at least ten years on a full-time basis without be­ing re­gistered in the Swiss Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister;

c.

any per­son who has worked pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney abroad for at least six years on a full-time basis as a reg­u­lated pro­fes­sion un­der the laws of the coun­try of ori­gin; or

d.

any per­son who is re­gistered in the list of pro­fes­sion­al rep­res­ent­at­ives main­tained by the European Pat­ent Of­fice and has worked pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land for at least one year on a full-time basis.

¹A min­im­um of twelve months of the prac­tic­al train­ing must be com­pleted on a full-time basis un­der a su­per­visor with a place of busi­ness in Switzer­land.

²Su­per­vised pro­fes­sion­al work as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in a for­eign coun­try will be re­cog­nised when it was com­pleted on a full-time basis for at least eight­een months and where, as a res­ult, the can­did­ate:

a.

ac­quired the spe­cial­ised know­ledge in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 and ap­plied it in prac­tice;

b.

be­came fa­mil­i­ar with the au­thor­it­ies com­pet­ent for pat­ent mat­ters in Switzer­land; and

c.

be­came fa­mil­i­ar with the form­al­it­ies and time lim­its for the pro­ced­ure of the grant of a pat­ent in Switzer­land.

¹On com­ple­tion of the can­did­ate’s prac­tic­al train­ing, the su­per­visor must cer­ti­fy the fol­low­ing in writ­ing:

a.

the dur­a­tion of prac­tic­al train­ing;

b.

the level of em­ploy­ment in re­la­tion to a full-time equi­val­ent;

c.

the place of em­ploy­ment;

d.

the activ­it­ies per­formed.

²In cases of prac­tic­al train­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 29 para­graph 2, the su­per­visor must also in­dic­ate in writ­ing the ex­tent to which the can­did­ate achieved the train­ing ob­ject­ives in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 29 para­graph 2 by means of the per­formed activ­it­ies.

¹Any per­son who wishes to be re­gistered in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister must sub­mit the fol­low­ing to the Swiss Fed­er­al In­sti­tute of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty (IPI):

a.

the in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 para­graph 1 let­ters b, c and, if ap­plic­able, let­ter d Pa­tAA; and

b.

the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments:

1.

the cer­ti­fic­ate con­firm­ing that the Swiss Fed­er­al Pat­ent At­tor­ney Ex­am­in­a­tion has been passed, or

2.

the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee’s de­cision on the re­cog­ni­tion of the for­eign pat­ent at­tor­ney ex­am­in­a­tion and, if ap­plic­able, the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee’s de­cision that the qual­i­fy­ing ex­am­in­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 23 para­graph 2 and Art­icle 26 para­graph 5 has been passed, or proof that the re­quire­ments in terms of Art­icle 23 para­graph 3 are ful­filled.

²The ap­plic­a­tion for re­gis­tra­tion will not be deemed to have been made un­less the re­gis­tra­tion fee has been paid with­in the time lim­it set by the IPI.

³Where the doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted are in­com­plete or where there is doubt as to their cor­rect­ness, the IPI may re­quest that ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion or proof be provided.

⁴Where the ap­plic­ant does not ful­fil the re­quire­ments for re­gis­tra­tion in the Re­gister, the IPI shall re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion. The re­gis­tra­tion fee shall not be re­fun­ded.

¹The IPI shall modi­fy or de­lete par­tic­u­lars in the Re­gister on ap­plic­a­tion by the re­gistered per­son or ex of­fi­cio.

²It shall modi­fy or de­lete par­tic­u­lars ex of­fi­cio when the in­form­a­tion re­quired for re­gis­tra­tion has changed, in par­tic­u­lar, when the re­gistered per­son no longer has an ad­dress for ser­vice in Switzer­land or the re­gistered per­son’s ad­dress for ser­vice in Switzer­land has changed.

³Where the IPI mod­i­fies or de­letes par­tic­u­lars ex of­fi­cio, it shall no­ti­fy the re­gistered per­son of the in­ten­ded amend­ment or de­le­tion and set a time lim­it to re­spond. If the re­gistered per­son does not com­ply with the time lim­it to re­spond, the IPI shall modi­fy or de­lete the cor­res­pond­ing par­tic­u­lars.

⁴The IPI may de­lete par­tic­u­lars ex of­fi­cio without in­vit­a­tion to re­spond where:

a.

the Swiss Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice or­ders the de­le­tion;

b.

the Ex­am­in­a­tion Com­mit­tee sub­sequently de­clares an ex­am­in­a­tion to be in­val­id;

c.

the re­gistered per­son is de­ceased.

¹Where a per­son whose re­gis­tra­tion has been de­leted wishes to be re-entered in the Re­gister, and where the re­quire­ments for re­gis­tra­tion are ful­filled, sub­mis­sion of the cer­ti­fic­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 para­graph 1 Pa­tAA shall suf­fice.

²The re­gis­tra­tion fee must be paid in full for re-entry in the Re­gister.

¹The dossier shall be re­tained for a peri­od of five years fol­low­ing de­le­tion of a re­gis­tra­tion in the Re­gister or for a peri­od of five years fol­low­ing re­jec­tion of an ap­plic­a­tion for re­gis­tra­tion.

²The fol­low­ing per­sons may view the dossier:

a.

the per­son re­gistered in the Re­gister;

b.

third parties who can prove a jus­ti­fied in­terest.

¹The IPI may per­mit elec­tron­ic com­mu­nic­a­tion.

²It shall es­tab­lish the tech­nic­al de­tails and pub­lish them in a suit­able man­ner.

Nat­ur­al sci­ences or en­gin­eer­ing de­grees (Bach­el­or’s, Mas­ter’s, Dip­lom or Lizen­zi­at) ob­tained at high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions as defined in Art­icle 3 of the Uni­versity Fund­ing Act of 8 Oc­to­ber 1999⁵ are re­cog­nised as Swiss high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 Pa­tAA even if the high­er edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tion was not ac­cred­ited at the time the qual­i­fic­a­tion was awar­ded.

¹Any per­son who wishes to be re­gistered in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 Pa­tAA must sub­mit the fol­low­ing to the IPI:

a.

for ap­plic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 1 let­ter a Pa­tAA, proof of work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land and of a high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fic­a­tion;

b.

for ap­plic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 1 let­ter b Pa­tAA, proof of work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally as a pat­ent at­tor­ney in Switzer­land and proof of re­gis­tra­tion in the list of pro­fes­sion­al rep­res­ent­at­ives be­fore the European Pat­ent Of­fice.

²The ap­plic­a­tion will not be deemed to have been made un­less the re­gis­tra­tion fee has been paid with­in the time lim­it set by the IPI.

³Where the doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted are in­com­plete or where there is doubt as to their cor­rect­ness, the IPI may re­quire that ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion or proof be provided.

⁴Where the ap­plic­ant does not ful­fil the re­quire­ments for re­gis­tra­tion in the Re­gister, the IPI will re­ject the ap­plic­a­tion. The re­gis­tra­tion fee will not be re­fun­ded.

Per­sons who ful­fil the re­quire­ments for re­gis­tra­tion in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 1 Pa­tAA may use the pro­fes­sion­al titles “pat­ent at­tor­ney”, “Pat­entan­wält­in” or “Pat­entan­walt”, “con­seil en brev­ets” or “con­su­lente in brev­etti” dur­ing the time peri­od for sub­mit­ting their ap­plic­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 Pa­tAA, even if they have not yet been re­gistered in the Pat­ent At­tor­ney Re­gister.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Ju­ly 2011.