Renaming a company / Question 2
Does the rename change who owns the marks?
Intelligence, not legal advice. Screening is a starting point, not a clearance opinion.
No. A rename changes the company’s name, not the company: its register entry keeps the same identification number, and its trademarks stay its own. The trademark register does not follow the commercial register, though. It shows the holder under the old name until the change is reported to the IPI, which is free.
01 / The same company
A new name, the same number.
Every entity in the commercial register has a business identification number (UID). It identifies the entity permanently and cannot be changed, and the UID of a deleted entity is never given out again. (HRegV Art. 116)
A trademark right belongs to its holder from the entry in the register. (MSchG Arts. 5 and 6) Moving it to someone else takes a written transfer (MSchG Art. 17(2)), and a change of name is not one.
Check the new name ↑02 / The trademark register
It still shows the old name.
The IPI asks holders to report any change to their name, company name, address or representative, so that Swissreg shows current data. These changes to the register are free of charge. (IPI, Updating your register entry)
The change can be requested online, by email or by post. (IPI)
Check the new name ↑03 / When marks do move
A sale is a transfer.
If the rename comes with a sale or a restructuring, the marks are a question of their own. When a business is transferred, its marks go with it unless agreed otherwise. (MSchG Art. 17(4))
A transfer of a mark is valid only in writing, and against third parties acting in good faith it takes effect once it is entered in the register. (MSchG Art. 17(2))
Check the new name ↑04 / In Antevo
See which marks carry the old name.
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. Run it on the old name to see what is registered under it, and on the new one to see what stands near it. No account needed; the answer appears on this page.
Check the new name ↑Sources
Where this comes from.
The count behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal advice, and a trademark attorney or your lawyer confirms whether a new name is free and what a rename means for your contracts.