We maintain an office address in the city of Basel, Switzerland, in proximity of the French and German border and at the heart of the Swiss chemical industry- we consider Switzerland being our home turf in fact.
We are duly accredited Swiss Patent and Trademark Attorney (www.ige.ch/patentanwaltsregister.html & www.ige.ch/service/patentanwaelte.html ) & a member of the Swiss Patent Attorney association VESPA/ACBSE (www.chepat.ch) . Our firm is entitled to file applications for patent, design or trademark with the Swiss Patent Office, to file trademark opposition, or to represent you 1. in invalidation proceedings with the federal Swiss patent court or 2. in design, SPC or trademark appeal/opposition at the federal swiss administrative court, both situated in St. Gallen. - We may advise you on enforcing your patents in Switzerland, by border measures and with a Swiss Court, , or on the metes and bounds of providing `Swissness` by wording or design (Swiss cross) to your products or service offerings, whether protected by trademark or not; Swiss governmental authorities are also actively monitoring `misuse` of the Swiss cross or the connotation `Swiss-` on markets abroad, based on international treaties. However, much depends on context, detail and customer perception, as to decide what is permissible use and what is not. We would be glad to advise you on how to navigate thru the maze and to enhance your product labelling, still then! - Beside English and German, it is our pride to actively employ French as a working language of ours.
Notably, under the wording of the 2011 newly inaugurated Swiss Federal rules of court procedure under criminal and civil law, with some last clarifying amendments having taken effect on Jan. 1, 2013, Swiss Patent Attorneys explicitely enjoy the same legal privilege as do lawyers/attorneys-at-law; this includes for the first time full and uncompromised work-product protection by legal privilege, commensurate with e.g. UK or US law. Contact us if you want to have a read in the Swiss Legal texts, available in English directly from the Swiss Federal government`s server www.admin.ch .
Submissions to both above said Swiss federal courts may be made electronically, by handing-over to Swiss Post or - notably - by handing over any submission by hand at the Swiss Consulate General at Frankfurt/Main, this being considered equal to a drop off at the Swiss court itself the same day.
Our Swiss Office is in the centre of the city of Basel (right next to the main station, 3-4 min. footwalk, downhill direction to Heuwaage/opposite police station):
Skype: Skype Address is gilles-reiss5 (good video streaming quality on iPod).
Nonethelss, we are equally happy meeting with you at Office Centers in Frankfurt /Main or - with international clients, as need may be - in London. Our
Important notice:Our business clients in Switzerland enjoy VAT exemption as regards us, compliant with German and Swiss tax laws - our billing is exempted from applying any VAT charge (0%).
Who we are:
The firm`s founder and managing director, Dipl. Natw. ETH, Dr.sc.nat. ETH, Gilles Reiss(-Hürlimann), spent more than 10 years working in chemical industry ( petrochemicals/plastics and specialty chemicals/active pharmaceutical ingredients) as a patent attorney, with an international outlook (2000-2007 Lonza AG, Basel/CH, 2007-2011 Basell Polyolefine GmbH, Frankfurt/DE) . Further, he worked on international supply and license contracts in industry as well as patent enforcement. - Mr. Reiss is both a qualified Swiss and European Patent Attorney (professional titles protected under the law).
Being a native of Neu-Isenburg (at the city limit of Frankfurt/Main/born 1967), he started studying chemistry at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, finally graduating from the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in 1993 in organic chemistry and polymer chemistry/analytics; biomimetic synthesis/biochemistry was a further elective. Additional specialisation was on carbohydrate and peptide chemical synthesis.
Legal Training: After subjecting in 1998/1999 to a postgraduate, full-time 40 h/week conversion course training in European and Swiss Patent Law & Swiss General, Contract and IP law at ETH Zurich (NDS Geistiges Eigentum), Dr. Reiss enrolled for the regular 2-y on-the-job training in European Patent Law and practice held throughout Europe (and in Switzerland) under the auspices of the European Patent Organisation by U. Strasbourg law school (CEIPI). After passing the European bar exam for representation before European Patent Office in 2005, he enrolled and passed (mention: `bien`) the CEIPI/epi European Patent Litigation Diploma Course (2006-7; on the job) for accredited European Patent Attorneys. Beside, he enrolled for a 2y distance study in English (Common) Law, notably English legal method, contract and tort law, at Nottingham Law School (Nottingham Trent University, UK, 2008-10).