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Antevo / Founding a company

Founding a company: the name.

In the twelve months to September 2026, 56,459 new entries were published in the Swiss commercial register. The entry protects a company’s name only to a limited extent, and not as a trademark. These pages answer the questions about the name that come up at founding, each with its sources and one place in Antevo to act on it.

Written by Antevo · 17 October 2026

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01 / The questions

Six questions, answered.

A count of new entries from the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, our own analysis of the Swiss trademark register, and the rules from fedlex.admin.ch and the IPI, each with its source on the page.

1.Is my company name free as a trademark?The commercial register will not tell you. Trademarks sit in other registers, and the IPI does not check for conflicts when it registers a mark.2.Does entering the company in the commercial register protect the name?Only to a limited extent. The entry does not make the name a trademark: that protection comes only from the trademark register kept by the IPI.3.Should the company or the founder hold the trademark?Whoever the register names owns the mark. 37% of Swiss trademark applications from July to September 2026 named a holder with no company legal form.4.Which classes should the trademark cover?The goods and services you will actually offer. Protection follows that list, it cannot be extended once the mark is registered, and an unused claim lapses after five years.5.What does a name conflict cost later?Opposition fees, the other side’s lawyer, possible damages, and the name itself: a mark that infringes an earlier right can be cancelled years after registration.6.I used the name before someone filed it. Does that count?For the use you already made, yes: Swiss law lets you continue to the same extent. It does not give you the trademark, and it does not grow with the business.

Antevo count of the new-entry notices (rubric HR01) published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, each notice counted once; as of 17 October 2026. The count covers every legal form, branches included, and follows the publication date, which comes a few days after the entry in the cantonal register. Trademark applications: national applications in the Swiss register (Swissreg, IPI) with a filing date in the same quarter, from our analysis of 16 October 2026. Counts only: no company or holder is named.

Sources

Where this comes from.

The counts behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal advice, and a trademark attorney confirms whether a name is free and how to protect it.

1.SHAB: Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, new entries in the commercial register (rubric HR01), source of the Antevo countwww.shab.ch2.IPI: Starting a companywww.ige.ch3.Swissreg: the Swiss trademark register (IPI), source of the Antevo analysiswww.swissreg.ch

You choose the name once. Check it before you register it.

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