Intellectual property law, including unfair competition, is the subject of considerable academic interest in Switzerland, comprising a field of study since the 19th century up to the year 2020. Scholars in particular include Professors Rolf Bär, Carl Baudenbacher, Stephan Bechtfeld, Denis Barrelet, François Curchod, Eugen David, François Dessemontet, Willi Egloff, Reto Hilty, Daniel Hürlimann, Carlo Govoni, Daniel Kraus, Max Kummer, Eugen Marbach, Mario M. Pedrazzini, Michael Rauber, Manfred Rehbinder, Cyrill Rigamonti, Nathalie Tissot, Alois Troller, Kamen Troller, Walter R. Schluep, Roland von Büren, Alois von Orelli and Jacques de Werra.
As initially discussed, this academic community (partly discussed in the cluster on Law and Economics), is essentially concerned with intellectual property and unfair competition from the angles of private comparative law and international private law − which is much closer to daily practice than international agreements humming in the background as part of a global operating system. Except for international economic law and related research, referred to in the introduction to this cluster and the background notes, intellectual property professorships have been combined in with commercial and corporate law, but not with public international law. Some scholars are informed in the area of international commercial arbitration, and thus more closely related to international law in their scholarship. The paper by Jacques de Werra indicates that the quest for harmonization by means of international law is often rooted in practical problems encountered in squaring different national jurisdictions and legal orders.
The topics of the second set of research papers and studies are quite distinct from the focus of the epistemic community. These are primarily interested in the angle of public international law and advancing related disciplines in the field of protecting traditional knowledge and biodiversity, and in bringing about an appropriate framework for cyberspace. Lastly, they aim to further integrate the field of intellectual property into the body of public international law and human rights and international trade law in particular, in doing so creating an appropriate balance between divergent interests involved. Note also that they partly work in an interdisciplinary manner, taking social science research and economics into account.