Overview
As an intellectual property right, a patent allows the exclusive commercialization of an invention at national or international level (for example, use, marketing, licensing). Inventions susceptible of industrial application and which do not obviously result from the current state-of-the-art technology are patentable (art. 1 PatG (Industrial Property Law); SR (Federal Law Compendium) 232.14). For example, plant species, animal breeds and human bodies, including their (natural) component parts, are not patentable, in all design and development stages. The inventions which utilization is an attempt against human dignity or which, in any other way, conflict with public order or good morals (art. 1a and following of PatG) are not patentable.

Protection conditions
In principle, an invention is patentable if it is new, not obvious and if has industrial applicability.

An invention is a creative idea that allows to obtain, through a new and original combination of forces and substances existing in nature, an added value that represents a substantial technological advance (BGE 95 I 581, E. 3). The concept of Technology may arise from all areas (art. 52 (1) of EPÜ (European Patent Convention); SR 0.232.142.2), for instance, from Physics, Chemistry, Biology or Electricity and Electronics. A specialized technician must be able to reproduce and carry out the result of an invention with the registered technical resources in the patent (see art. 50 (1) of PatG). Discoveries, aesthetical creations, information reproductions, as well as programs for data processing equipment are not inventions, within the meaning of patent law (art. 52 (2) of EPÜ).

An invention is considered to be new if it does not form part of the state-of-the-art (art. 7 (1) of PatG). The state-of-the-art comprises everything made publicly available before the patent application or priority date, by means of a written or oral description, by use or in any other way.(art. 7 (2) of PatG).

In principle, no patents are granted for minor variations to the current state-of-the-art. Whether the invention to be patented corresponds or not to an inventive activity, within the meaning of the patent law will be considered and assessed by an expert (see art. 56 of EPÜ).

An invention is industrially applicable if its object can be manufactured or used in any type of industry, including in agriculture (art. 57 of EPÜ).

Obtainment
To obtain a patent in Switzerland, the invention to be patented shall be filed, analysed and registered in the Patent Register of the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE) (art. 49 and following and art. 60 (1) of PatG). The maximum protection duration is limited to a period of 20 years (art. 14 (1) of PatG). For the protection of patents outside Switzerland (also with effect in Switzerland), it is possible to request, according to various treaties among States (for instance, EPÜ, PCT; SR 0.232.141.1), a patent registration with regional (European) or international effect. If a patent protection is requested in a State that is not a Member State of a Treaty between the corresponding States, an appropriate national process shall be carried out for the patent registration. For the Member States of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (PVÜ; SR 0.232.02/04) the right of priority is applied at international level, according to which the date of the first submission is decisive for all patent requests done in the following 12 months (art. 4 (c)(1) of the PVÜ (Paris Convention). The same also applies to the States that are not members of the PVÜ, but which grant reciprocal rights to Switzerland (art. 17 (1bis) of PatG).