Founding a company / Question 2
Does the commercial register protect the name?
Intelligence, not legal advice. Screening is a starting point, not a clearance opinion.
Only to a limited extent. The registered business name is the company’s to use, and others can be stopped from using it without authority. It does not make the name a trademark: that protection comes only from the trademark register kept by the IPI.
01 / Antevo count
How many names enter the register.
new entries in the Swiss commercial register, published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from October 2025 to September 2026: companies, sole proprietorships, branches, associations and foundations.
new entries from July to September 2026. For scale: in the same quarter, 5,462 national trademark applications were filed in Switzerland, by holders of every kind.
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.
Check a brand name ↑02 / What the entry gives
A business name, for the company’s use.
A business name entered in the commercial register and published in the SHAB is for the exclusive use of the party that registered it. Anyone whose interests are injured by its unauthorised use can apply for an injunction and, where the user is at fault, sue for damages. (OR Art. 956)
The business name of a company or cooperative must be clearly distinct from every business name of those legal forms already registered in Switzerland. (OR Art. 951)
Check a brand name ↑03 / What it does not give
A name, not a trademark.
Entering the business name in the commercial register does not automatically protect it as a trademark, and it protects only to a limited extent against third parties using the name for their products. (IPI, Starting a company)
A trademark right belongs to whoever files the mark first. Its holder can prohibit others from using a conflicting sign for the same or similar goods and services, including on business papers and in advertising. (MSchG Arts. 6 and 13)
The IPI therefore recommends checking, before the entry in the commercial register, whether an identical or similar name is already protected as a trademark. (IPI, Starting a company)
Check a brand name ↑04 / In Antevo
Check the trademark registers before the commercial one.
The free check screens a name across 50+ trademark registers and lists the marks near it, with office, status and the holder where it is a company. It takes a minute, needs no account, and the answer appears on this page.
Check a brand name ↑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.