« Corriger ce que le système des brevets peut avoir de trop restrictif »

Without a patent law before 1888, nineteenth-century Switzerland followed in this regard an original trajectory in Western Europe. The first legislation excluded chemical substances and processes by a clause that seemed just as original: the requirement that patented inventions be represented by three-dimensional models. By tracing the genesis as well as the implementation of this provision, this article reveals what forces shaped the first Swiss patent statute. It thus highlights the widely shared concerns about the consequences of the new institution on technical evolution, on competition, or on the number of lawsuits, a legacy of the controversies surrounding patents in mid-nineteenth-century Europe and of the experiences of other countries.