The filing is the beginning of the registration proceedings
In order that a trademark can be registered and thus receive legal protection, the respective legal conditions for the registration must be fulfilled. In Switzerland the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) examines the registrability of the filed trademark. In a further step the area of protection of a registered national Swiss trademark can be expanded by registering an IR mark (internationally registered mark). It has to be noted that the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, in the context of the registration procedure, is not legitimised to examine on its part in each procedure whether an equal or similar third mark exists already. However, if a third party opposes against the entry of the trademark the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property conducts the so-called contradiction procedure, in which it is judged whether the newly registered mark is confusable with the older mark and therefore must be deleted again.