| |
 |
N. 33, May - June 2007
|
|
|
 | IP & RTD: Articles
 |
|
|
|
Switzerland: Because small is beautiful…
Hermann Padovani
Trademark & Patent Attorney1
|
|
|
In recent years, this little country, located physically in the
heart of Europe but not at its political heart, proved to be a great source of
ideas turned into patents and trade marks. According to the last IFPI report
for the period 2005-2006, the number of filings reached a level so high as to
induce the authorities (for the sixth time in the last ten years) to
substantially reduce (and, in some cases, to eliminate) the related
administrative fees. Thanks to the IFPI revenues, starting 1st May this year, a
further cut has been made, both to encourage electronic trade mark filing and
to support the protection of intellectual assets owned by SMEs.
This series of measures, surely attractive from an economic point of
view, proved to be very useful even from a practical point of view, allowing
the optimisation and consequent streamlining of the management of
administrative procedures.
As Swiss consultants in intellectual property, we had the chance to
appreciate the swiftness and the simplicity of the communication and the
overall management of the related procedures, from the filing to the exam, and
the granting of protection rights.
A trade mark/design filed in Switzerland, combined with the coverage
of the Community trade mark/design, allows global protection within the
European territory by granting exclusive rights in 27 (Community Trade mark) +
1 (Swiss Trade mark) countries, through a convergence of the same number of
different legislations.
As regards the economic conditions of the SMEs, which– in
Switzerland, as well as in other European countries – represent the
backbone of the productive system and must face the high competition of the
European and world markets, it is important to have cost-effective and
high-performing tools for the protection of industrial property rights, which
are strategic and essential assets for a modern enterprise involved in
innovative activities, especially for high technological added-value ones, and,
chiefly, for start-ups.
A portfolio made up of trade marks and patents, carefully managed in
a cost-effective way according to a marketing strategy that takes into account
the specificities of target sector, allows one to be competitive in
today’s market, which is more and more dynamically evolving and
global.
The participation of Switzerland and of the various Swiss networks
involved in IPR issues in European projects, such as the ones within the
Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, shows
the strong commitment to encouraging companies to collaborate and to start up
innovation processes, by stimulating win-win cooperation agreements between
private enterprises and research organisations and by promoting joint projects
(industry driven) for the transfer of know-how.
In confirmation of what we said, we want to draw attention to the
number of European patent applications filed by Switzerland in 2005: 3.91% of
the overall filings, which corresponds to the 4th position in the Europe,
behind the Netherlands (6.06%), France (6.24%) and Germany (18.49%).
Furthermore, Switzerland, according to recent statistical surveys, has the
higher number of patents filed at the European Patent Office per million
inhabitants.
All these elements should clarify how Switzerland has been able to
stay ahead of the times, proving to be an interesting platform for the
establishment of the strategic management of intellectual property rights,
despite what is said by the character created by Orson Wells in his famous
movie, “The third man”: “…you know what the fellow
said...in Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror,
murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred
years of democracy and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!"
1.
Kemia S.A. info@kemia.ch Lugano - Switzerland
(«)
|
| |
|
|
