Exclusive interview: Dieter Brändle, President, Swiss Federal Patent Court
13 January 2012
James Nurton, London
The president of Switzerland’s new patent court talks to James Nurton about judges, language and competition between European jurisdictions
Tell us about yourself?
I studied law in Zurich and wrote my thesis in Strasbourg, France on human rights. I was a clerk at the district court in Zurich and was then admitted to the bar.
In 1984 I joined the commercial court of Zurich and started to deal with patents. From 1992 I was spending practically all my time on patent cases as a judge. The Zurich court heard about half of all patent cases in Switzerland. Altogether I have been working this area for more than 25 years.
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"The conflict question is obviously a potential problem with these part-time judges so we have put guidelines on independence on our website" |
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Why has Switzerland set up a new patent court?
It was proposed some years ago. It was needed because parties could end up in some cantonal court...
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