Patent law

Patents are protective titles for inventions granted by the competent authority. The law stipulates that the patented inventions can be exploited for a maximum of twenty years in a given geographical area only with the permission of the person holding the patent. This refers in particular to the manufacturing, use and sale of a product.

Inventions are technical rules that in practice capture the solution to a particular problem. Inventions are only patentable if they are new, not obvious and can be applied commercially.

In the field of patents, Liechtenstein and Switzerland form a single territory of protection created by the Treaty of December 22, 1978 between the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Swiss Confederation on the Protection of Patents for Inventions (Patentschutzvertrag, LR 0.232.149.101.1). This Treaty was extended by the Ergänzungsvereinbarung vom 2. November 1994 zwischen Liechtenstein und der Schweiz (LR 0.232.149.101.12).

The administrative matters are entirely taken over by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE) in Bern.

Liechtenstein, like Switzerland, is a member of the Übereinkommen vom 5. Oktober 1973 über die Erteilung europäischer Patente (EPÜ, LR 0.232.142.2 - European Patent Convention. 

Addresses

Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

Stauffacherstrasse 65/59g

CH-3003 Bern
 

European Patent Office

Bob van Benthem Square 1

80469 Munich