In accordance with Article 1 para. 1 of the Federal Law on Patents for Inventions, patents for inventions are granted for new inventions that are applicable in industry, i.e. commercially applicable, executable and reproducible. Pursuant to constant jurisdiction of the Swiss Federal Court, an invention is given if, based on a peculiar creative idea through the new inventive combination of natural forces, a technical effect and thus a technical progress is obtained (see e.g. BGE 95 I 579 cons. 3).
The patentability of inventions requires in particular the following:
- Novelty of the invention (not made available to the public worldwide)
- Inventive step (not obvious in view of the prior art)
- The invention is industrially applicable