Federal Act
on Patents for Inventions
(Patents Act, PatA)¹

¹ Where an in­ven­tion is the sub­ject of a reg­u­lar fil­ing of an ap­plic­a­tion for a pat­ent for an in­ven­tion, a util­ity mod­el or an in­vent­or's cer­ti­fic­ate, and where the fil­ing takes place in or with ef­fect in a coun­try that is a party to the Par­is Con­ven­tion for the Pro­tec­tion of In­dus­tri­al Prop­erty of 20 March 1883⁵¹ or the Agree­ment Es­tab­lish­ing the World Trade Or­gan­iz­a­tion of 15 April 1994⁵², (Ap­pendix 1C, Agree­ment on Trade-Re­lated As­pects of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty Rights), it shall give rise to a right of pri­or­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 of the Par­is Con­ven­tion. This right may be claimed for a pat­ent ap­plic­a­tion filed in Switzer­land for the same in­ven­tion with­in 12 months from the date of the first fil­ing.⁵³

^1bis The first fil­ing in a coun­try that grants re­cipro­city to Switzer­land has the same ef­fect as the first fil­ing in a coun­try that is party to the Par­is Con­ven­tion for the Pro­tec­tion of In­dus­tri­al Prop­erty.⁵⁴

^1ter Ex­cept as oth­er­wise provided by this Act or by the Or­din­ance, para­graph 1 above and Art­icle 4 of the Par­is Con­ven­tion for the Pro­tec­tion of In­dus­tri­al Prop­erty of 20 March 1883 ap­ply by ana­logy to a first fil­ing in Switzer­land.⁵⁵

² The ef­fect of the pri­or­ity right is that the ap­plic­a­tion may not be pre­ju­diced by any cir­cum­stances that have aris­en since the date of the first fil­ing.⁵⁶

³ …⁵⁷