Inheritance / Question 5
Who owns the trademarks after a death?
Intelligence, not legal advice. Screening is a starting point, not a clearance opinion.
A trademark registered in a person’s own name is part of their estate and passes to the heirs with everything else. A mark held by a company stays with the company, whose shares pass instead. The register does not change by itself: the new holder appears only once the change is recorded at the IPI, which is free of charge.
01 / Part of the estate
The founder’s mark, the heirs’ asset.
Registered trademarks can change hands by contract or by inheritance. (IPI, 15 July 2025) On death, the estate vests in the heirs as a whole (ZGB Art. 560), a mark held in the deceased’s own name included.
A mark held by a company is not part of the estate: it stays with the company, and the company’s shares pass instead. The register shows which of the two holds it.
Check a name ↑02 / In the register
Record the new holder.
Without a request to the IPI, the new holder does not appear in the register; recording the change is free of charge. (IPI) Requests can be made online, in German, French or Italian. (IPI, Register changes)
The IPI records a change of holder on a declaration of the holder or another sufficient document showing that the mark has passed to the new holder. (IPI, Guidelines, Part 3)
Check a name ↑03 / The dates still run
Two clocks an estate inherits.
A Swiss registration runs ten years from filing and is renewed ten years at a time. (MSchG Art. 10) In an estate that takes months to divide, a renewal date can pass unnoticed.
A mark not used for five years in a row can no longer be asserted, unless there are proper reasons for the non-use. (MSchG Art. 12(1))
Check a name ↑04 / In Antevo
See which marks a name carries.
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; a private individual appears as “individual applicant”. For heirs, it is a first look at what a name carries and in whose name it is registered. No account needed; the answer appears on this page.
Check a name ↑Sources
Where this comes from.
The published estimate behind the figure and the primary sources for every legal point: the Civil Code and the Code of Obligations on fedlex.admin.ch, the Federal Office of Justice, the Federal Tax Administration, the Federal Chancellery, the Swiss Parliament and the IPI. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal or tax advice. A notary or a lawyer confirms what a will, a contract or an estate requires.