Switzerland sits outside the European Union, so its trademark system runs entirely independently of EUIPO and the EU Trademark Regulation. National protection is governed by the Federal Act on the Protection of Trade Marks and Indications of Source (TmPA / MSchG, SR 232.11), enacted on 28 August 1992 and administered solely by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI / IGE) in Bern. A Swiss registration covers Switzerland and — through a bilateral mutual-recognition arrangement — Liechtenstein, but it has zero overlap with an EUTM; a business wanting both must file twice. This structural independence produces several rules that differ sharply from the Spanish system addressed earlier.
The foundational rule is Article 5 TmPA: a trademark right comes into existence only upon entry in the Register. Use in the market does not create a trademark right; it creates, at most, a narrow prior-use defence under Article 14. That defence lets a person who genuinely used a sign in Switzerland before a later application was filed continue using it to the same extent as before — but only that. The prior user cannot expand, cannot license the defence freely, and can assign it only together with the undertaking (Art. 14(2)). An unregistered mark with no prior-use track record gets only unfair-competition protection under the Unfair Competition Act, which is materially weaker than a registered right.
Coupled with this is Article 6 TmPA — strict first-to-file priority. Where two parties clash, the earlier filing wins, full stop. This is why clearance searching on Swissreg before filing is not optional: IGE examines only absolute grounds and never searches for conflicting earlier marks ex officio. The risk of a later opposition sits entirely with the applicant.
Swiss law honours two external priority windows. Article 7 TmPA gives a six-month Paris Convention priority: a first filing in any Paris member (or a state granting reciprocity to Switzerland) can be claimed as the Swiss filing date if the Swiss application lands within six months. Article 8 TmPA adds exhibition priority — a mark shown at an official or officially recognised international exhibition under the 1928 Convention may claim the exhibition opening date, again within six months. Both require a priority declaration filed with IGE and, on request, a priority document (Art. 9). Missing the formality forfeits the claim.
Absolute grounds (Art. 2 TmPA) are examined by IGE: public-domain/generic signs, purely descriptive terms, shapes dictated by the nature of the goods or technically necessary, deceptive signs, and signs contrary to law, morality or public order. The Swiss cross, cantonal arms and official emblems are barred under a separate federal act and cannot be privately registered.
Relative grounds (Art. 3 TmPA) are not examined by IGE. After publication in Swissreg and the Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt (SHAB), any holder of an earlier Swiss mark, a well-known mark, or a Madrid designation covering Switzerland may oppose within a non-extendable three-month window. IGE sends no notices to prior-rights holders — monitoring SHAB or running a watch service is the owner's responsibility. A successful opposition kills the application; an unsuccessful one lets it proceed to registration.
One feature foreign counsel often miss: a Swiss trademark is a freestanding property right, not an appendage of the company. Article 17 TmPA permits assignment of the whole or part of a registration by goods/services, requires the assignment to be evidenced in writing, and makes it effective against bona fide third parties only once entered in the Register. Until registration of the transfer, actions can still be brought against the previous proprietor. Assignment of the undertaking implicitly carries its marks unless otherwise agreed.
Closely related is Article 17a TmPA — division of an application or registration. An owner may split a filing or registration at any time, allocating the Nice classes between divisional files; each divisional retains the original filing and priority date. This is the Swiss equivalent of the US/EPO divisional mechanism and is heavily used to isolate contested classes from clean ones during opposition or revocation risk.
A Swiss registration is not self-sustaining. Article 12 TmPA provides that a mark not put to genuine use in Switzerland for an uninterrupted five years — counting from the expiry of the opposition period, or from the end of an opposition proceeding — is liable to revocation on the application of any person with a legal interest. Authorised use by a licensee counts as use by the proprietor; minor variations that do not alter the distinctive character also count (Art. 11). Non-use revocation runs through the civil courts, not IGE — there is no administrative non-use cancellation route, unlike post-2023 Spain. Proof must show real commercial exploitation on Swiss territory; token use or warehousing does not suffice.
Article 15 TmPA gives a well-known (famous) mark protection beyond its registered classes: the owner may prohibit use on any goods/services if that use would impair the mark's distinctiveness or exploit or damage its reputation. The critical procedural caveat — and a point that surprises practitioners used to opposition-based systems — is that Article 15 cannot be invoked in IGE opposition proceedings. IGE assesses opposition only on Article 3 confusion grounds within the registered scope. A broad cross-class famous-mark claim must be pursued in the civil courts (Art. 55 TmPA) or, where unfair competition overlaps, under the UCA. Civil courts apply a more lenient fame standard than IGE, but the claimant still must prove fame in Switzerland and concrete reputational harm.
Applications go through the e-trademark portal (e-trademark.ige.ch) and must be in German, French or Italian — the three official languages. The mark itself may be in any language (English word marks are fine), but the goods/services description and all correspondence must be in an official language; English-only filings are rejected. Non-residents without a Swiss/Liechtenstein establishment must appoint a Swiss-resident IP representative with a domestic service address; a bare foreign filing is rejected under Art. 28.
2026 IGE official fees (VAT-exempt): electronic filing CHF 350 for up to three Nice classes, CHF 100 per additional class; paper filing adds a flat CHF 100 surcharge (base CHF 450); expedited four-week examination adds CHF 400. Renewal is CHF 550 for the first three classes, CHF 100 per extra class, with a six-month grace period after expiry carrying a surcharge. All fees are non-refundable.
Switzerland is a Madrid Protocol member, so a WIPO international registration can designate Switzerland directly — no EU route reaches Swiss territory. A Madrid designation hitting Switzerland is examined by IGE on the same absolute grounds, published in SHAB, and exposed to the three-month opposition window. Base-mark dependency applies: if the home-office base mark collapses within five years, the Swiss effect must be converted to a national filing within the prescribed window or it lapses. Businesses often file Swiss national + Madrid in parallel when the base mark is young, to avoid the dependency cliff.
Rights holders can record their marks with the Federal Customs and Border Security Office (FOCBS). An application to detain suspected infringing goods is valid for two years and renewable. FOCBS notifies the rights holder and the consignee, holds the goods, and — under a recently adopted simplification — small consignments (three items or fewer) can be destroyed in a streamlined procedure when the importer does not object, addressing the fact that over 90% of seized shipments are now micro-parcels. Over 95% of detentions result in no formal opposition, making customs the cheapest first line of defence for Swiss mark owners.
The Swiss system rewards early filing, clean recordals, and active Swiss-market use. The combination of first-to-file, no ex officio relative search, a three-month opposition window with no IGE watch duty, and a five-year non-use revocation means a dormant or sloppily-monitored portfolio is exposed on two fronts simultaneously. The property-right treatment under Arts. 17–17a also means M&A due diligence on Swiss marks must verify Register entries, not just board resolutions — an unrecorded assignment is ineffective against a bona fide purchaser.
IPcrossarkhttps://www.ipcrossark.com/en/trademark.html?cid=64
IGE / IPI Switzerland – official trademark office
Swissreg – official Swiss trademark register and publication platform
TmPA / MSchG (SR 232.11) – English text on Lawbrary
ICLG – Trade Mark Laws and Regulations 2026: Switzerland
