The substantial legal costs of defending and enforcing a patent on both sides of the Atlantic has been subject to substantial critique (e.g. J. Bessen/M. Meurer, Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2008; B. van Pottelsberghe, Lost Property: The European Patent System and Why It Doesn’t Work, Brussels 2009). There has even been some movement on the issue in Europe exemplifled by a proposal for a “Unifled Patent Court” in Europe (EC16222/12), which inter alia should reduce patent-related litigation costs. Despite the obvious importance for Swiss patent policy, to our knowledge, there has been no systematic attempt to ascertain the legal costs associated with Switzerland’s patent system; this paper seeks to remedy that apparent lacuna.

Mark James Thompson | 2013 Ausgabe 6