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

¹ If a pat­en­ted in­ven­tion can­not be used without in­fringing a pri­or pat­ent, the pro­pri­et­or of the later pat­ent has the right to a non-ex­clus­ive li­cence to the ex­tent re­quired to use his in­ven­tion, provided that the in­ven­tion rep­res­ents an im­port­ant tech­nic­al ad­vance of con­sid­er­able eco­nom­ic sig­ni­fic­ance in re­la­tion to the in­ven­tion that is the sub­ject-mat­ter of the pri­or pat­ent.

² A li­cence to use the in­ven­tion that is the sub­ject-mat­ter of the pri­or pat­ent may only be trans­ferred jointly with the later pat­ent.

³ The pro­pri­et­or of the pri­or pat­ent may make the grant of a li­cence con­di­tion­al on the pro­pri­et­or of the later pat­ent grant­ing him a li­cence to use his in­ven­tion in re­turn.