Succession and sale / Question 3
Who owns your brand when you sell your company?
Intelligence, not legal advice. Screening is a starting point, not a clearance opinion.
The holder named in the trademark register, and that is not always the company. When a business is transferred, Swiss law moves its marks with it unless agreed otherwise. A mark registered to the founder personally is the founder’s, and moves only by a separate written transfer.
01 / Antevo analysis
How often the holder is not a company.
of trademark applications filed in Switzerland from July to September 2026 named a holder with no company legal form, typically a private person: 2,006 of 5,462. For holders with a Swiss address: 42%.
of those filed by Swiss-address holders without a legal form named no representative, such as a trademark attorney, on the register. Where the name carries a legal form: 54%.
Antevo analysis of national trademark applications in the Swiss register (Swissreg, IPI) with a filing date from 1 July to 30 September 2026, the latest full quarter our copy of the register holds almost completely; as of 16 October 2026. A holder name counts as carrying a legal form when it contains a recognised company or organisation form (AG, GmbH, SA, Sàrl, Sagl, Ltd, cooperative, foundation, association and others). The rule fails safe: a company whose form it does not recognise counts as having none, so the share may run slightly high. Address and representative as recorded by the IPI; the 429 applications without a recorded address are not in the Swiss-address figures. Counts only: no holder is named.
Check a brand name ↑02 / The holder
The register names the owner.
Swiss law transfers a business’s marks with the business, unless the parties agree otherwise. (MSchG Art. 17(4))
A mark held in your own name is yours, not the company’s. Moving it to the company or to a buyer takes a written transfer, and against third parties acting in good faith the transfer takes effect only once it is entered in the register. (MSchG Art. 17(2))
The IPI records a transfer on request, online through Swissreg or by form; a request to transfer a mark must be signed. (IPI)
Check a brand name ↑03 / What it covers
Protection follows the list.
A registration protects the goods and services it lists. Once a mark is registered, the list can be narrowed but not extended, so new products may need a new filing. (IPI)
A mark not used for the listed goods or services for five consecutive years can no longer be asserted, unless there are proper reasons for the non-use. (MSchG Art. 12(1))
Check a brand name ↑04 / The dates
Two clocks a sale inherits.
Renewal. A Swiss registration runs ten years from the filing date and is renewed ten years at a time. The request reaches the IPI within the last twelve months before expiry, and at the latest six months after it, with a surcharge if late. (MSchG Art. 10; IPI)
Opposition. The holder of an earlier mark can oppose a new Swiss registration within three months of its publication. (MSchG Art. 31(2))
Check a brand name ↑05 / In Antevo
See what the register says about your 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; a private individual appears as “individual applicant”. Antevo Trademark gives the opposition deadline from each office’s own statute where it holds the publication date, and a free account watches one name for new filings.
Check a brand name ↑Sources
Where this comes from.
The study behind the figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal, tax, estate or investment advice, and your lawyer, notary or tax specialist confirms anything a decision rests on.