Brevet

Brevet is the French word for patent. The Swiss Federal Office of Patents opened on November 15, 1888, with Paul Perret waiting overnight to receive the first to be issued.

History of Patents in Switzerland

Adapted from an article in l'Impartial, October 20, 1888, by Mr. Imer-Schneider

As early as 1849 a motion requesting the introduction of patents was presented to the National Council, which rejected it. In 1851, a similar petition from Theodore Zappinger of Mannedorf and two other Zurich manufacturers was made. In 1854, a petition from Mr. Lambelet from Verrières, a former member of the National Council, was made but the National Council rejected it. In 1861, the Prussian legation to the Swiss Confederation requested the Federal Council to provide it with information on the effects produced in Switzerland by the absence of any protection for inventions; the Federal Council replied by transmitting to La Prasse an opinion from Mr. Bolley and Kronauer, professors of chemistry and mechanical technology in Zurich, who both spoke out against patents. In 1862, the National Council rejected a motion of Dr. J. Schneider of Bern asking for the introduction of patents.

In 1865, the same fate befell the petition of Walter Zappinger, chief engineer of the firm of Escher, Wyss and Co., but this petition was supported by some councillors, including Alfred Escher, Dubs, Rüttimann, Vigier, and Eugene Escher. A brochure arguing for patents was published that year by Dr. Honegger, but this was reputed by an 1869 pamphlet by Victor Boeehmert, professor at the Polytechnic (later director of the statistical office of the kingdom of Saxony). In 1871, a motion by Dr. Joos was rejected, asking that an article be introduced into the Constitution allowing the Confederation to legislate without patents. In 1874, a favorable brochure by Adolphe Olt was accompanied by a new Zuppinger petition. In 1876 another petition appeared in the hands of Mr. Nestlé along with 43 Swiss photographers. In 1877, another favorable pamphlet was published by Max Wirth, former director of the Federal Bureau of Statistics. The same year the committee of the Swiss Society of Commerce and Industry (under president Kochlin-Geigy, from Basle) decided on various questions relating to industrial and literary property that the Federal Department of Commerce had submitted, and requested, with regard to patents, that the Swiss government not take a decision before Germany had legislated on the matter.

The question finally took shape after N. Droz, then head of the Federal Department of the Interior, published a study on the question of patents entitled "general inquiry and preliminary draft law". As early as 1873 the Federal Council was represented at Vienna, where the Universal Exhibition was linked to the International Congress of Industrial Property. In 1878, a second congress was held in Paris on the occasion of their international exhibition. The Federal Council requested a report from Mr. Imer-Schneider, a civil engineer, and Mr. Schreyer, now an insurance director and at that time a professor in Geneva. The report, which was sent to the Federal Council on their return from Paris, was issued in October 1878. It concluded: "A very striking reproach that we heard made selling the congress to the Swiss industry in its present position, that is to say in the absence of patents of invention is that of not having perfected the foreign inventions which it appropriated, and on the contrary of having made only mediocre imitations of them. This observation, if it is justified, is important, because it refutes one of the main arguments of the adversaries of the protection of inventions, who see in this very protection an obstacle to the general progress of the industry, which would result. This means that, during a certain period of time, the inventor alone has the right to perfect his invention... The Swiss will not be able to rely on protecting industrial property for a long time... It owes this, among other things, to the reputation of its industry. At the congress, an official delegate from America, Mr. Pollek, called Switzerland a country of counterfeiters. We have rejected this unfair reproach, but there will not be, each time this reproach is peddled by interested competitors, we will be present to respond."

The report continued, after pointing out that watchmaking, embroidery and other industries could not do without industrial protection if foreigners did not want to exploit their reputation for their own profit: "There is also another point; it is that of the internal discipline of our industries. Germany has entered into the path of minute protection, and at Congress she has supported the projects of international understanding. And why? Is it not up to a certain point because the German industry is impatient to be able to get rid of this epithet deschlecht und billig (bad and cheap) that M. Reuleaux act has applied and which has earned him such enemy numbers and such warm friends? And don't we in Switzerland have some considerations of this nature to weigh and examine? Once again we ask what would be the role played by Switzerland if it remained isolated in the midst of the international understanding which is in the process of being created? Forced by treaties to protect foreigners, it would be powerless to protect its own nationals."

After this, international agreement was reached and Switzerland adopted its own law on patents on June 29, 1888. On October 26 of that year the Federal Council established the procedures to register patents in Switzerland. Two categories were established: Examples of watches and firearms must be submitted for examination, while other inventions could be examined based on drawings or descriptions. The cost of examination was set at 10 francs.

The patent office was located in Berne in the asile des aveugles ("Asylum for the Blind") at Rue de la Lorraine 3, the same address that housed the federal trademark office. The office opened on November 15, 1888, with Paul Perret arriving the night before to be first in line to register Swiss Patent number 1. Perret also received patents number 21, 22, 23, and 24 that day. In all, 120 applications were received, with Kuhn et Tièche (no. 8), Edouard Heuer (no. 9), Auguste Goy-Golay (no. 10), Hermann Bovet (no. 12), Charles Humbert Fils (no. 15), Jacot-Burmann and Leo Æby (no. 32), David Perret (no. 44), and François Bargel (no. 46) also receiving early watchmaking-related patents.