SwitzerlandIP litigation on the move: important IP litigation on the move: important developments in civil procedure and patent litigation
This is an Insight article, written by a selected partner as part of IAM's co-published content. Read more on Insight
Until the end of 2010 each of the 26 Swiss cantons had its own civil procedure code. However, on January 1 2011, Swiss civil procedural law reached a long-awaited milestone when the Federal Code of Civil Procedure came into force. With regard to civil proceedings in IP cases, for the first time the code will provide a unified procedure before the competent courts. As before, each canton must designate a first instance court for IP cases, which will be responsible for hearing cases relating to infringement, validity, ownership, transfers and licences. However, this cantonal competence will end shortly for patent cases, due to the establishment of a single Swiss patent court of first instance to hear all patent cases.
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