Federal Act
on Agriculture
(Agriculture Act, AgricA)

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set up a re­gister of des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin and geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions.

² In par­tic­u­lar it shall reg­u­late:

a.

en­ti­tle­ment to re­gis­tra­tion;

b.

the re­quire­ments for re­gis­tra­tion, in par­tic­u­lar re­quire­ments re­gard­ing product spe­cific­a­tions;

c.

ap­peal and re­gis­tra­tion pro­ced­ures;

d.

mon­it­or­ing.

^2bis Swiss and for­eign des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin and geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions may be entered in the re­gister.³⁵

³ Re­gistered des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions may not be used as gen­er­ic names. Gen­er­ic names may not be re­gistered as des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin or as geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions.

⁴ If the name of a can­ton or a loc­al­ity is used in a des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or a geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion, it must be veri­fied that re­gis­ter­ing the product com­plies with any rel­ev­ant can­ton­al reg­u­la­tions.

⁵ Re­gistered des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions may not be re­gistered as product trade marks if the terms of para­graph 7 ap­ply.³⁶

^5bis If a trade mark is filed that con­tains a des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion that is identic­al or sim­il­ar to a des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion that has been filed for re­gis­tra­tion for identic­al or com­par­able goods, the trade mark ex­am­in­a­tion pro­ced­ure shall be sus­pen­ded un­til a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision has been taken on the ap­plic­a­tion to re­gister the des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or the geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion.³⁷

⁶ Any per­son who uses a re­gistered des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion for identic­al or sim­il­ar ag­ri­cul­tur­al products or goods pro­cessed from them must com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions in­dic­ated in para­graph 2 let­ter b. This does not ap­ply to the use of trade marks that are identic­al or sim­il­ar to a re­gistered des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion and which have been de­pos­ited or re­gistered in good faith or to which the right of use has been ac­quired in good faith:

a.

be­fore 1 Janu­ary 1996; or

b.

be­fore the name of the re­gistered des­ig­na­tion of ori­gin or geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tion came un­der pro­tec­tion un­der the terms of this Act or on an­oth­er leg­al basis, in­so­far as none of the grounds for nullity or ex­piry in­dic­ated in the Trade­mark Pro­tec­tion Act of 28 Au­gust 1992³⁸ can be demon­strated for the trade mark.³⁹

^6bis In as­sess­ing the leg­al­ity of the use of a trade mark ac­quired in good faith un­der the terms of para­graph 6, par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion should be giv­en to the ques­tion of wheth­er there is any risk of de­cep­tion or a breach of genu­ine com­pet­i­tion.⁴⁰

⁷ Re­gistered des­ig­na­tions of ori­gin and geo­graph­ic­al in­dic­a­tions are pro­tec­ted in par­tic­u­lar against:

a.

any com­mer­cial use in re­la­tion to oth­er products which takes ad­vant­age of the repu­ta­tion of a pro­tec­ted des­ig­na­tion;

b.

any form of usurp­a­tion, im­it­a­tion or coun­ter­feit­ing.