🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio
💡 swiss-ip-mcp
MCP Server for Swiss Intellectual Property Data (IGE/IPI)
🇩🇪 Deutsche Version → README.de.md
Overview
swiss-ip-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI models structured, language-driven access to the Swiss intellectual property register Swissreg, operated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE/IPI).
It is the successor to patent-mcp and covers all available domains of the Swissreg Datadelivery API: trademarks, patents, patent publications, and supplementary protection certificates (SPC/ESZ).
This server is model-agnostic. It works with Claude, GPT-4, Llama, and any other MCP-compatible client – not just Claude Desktop.
Example Queries
The real power is natural language. Instead of manually searching the register, just ask a question:
"Which trademarks does the City of Zurich hold at the IGE?"
"Is the name 'Learning City Zurich' registered as a trademark in Switzerland?"
"Which pharmaceutical companies have filed Swiss patents in the last six months?"
"Show me all trademark applications in the education sector (Nice class 41) since January 2025."
"What supplementary protection certificates does Novartis hold in Switzerland?"
Covered Domains
| Domain | Description |
|---|
| Trademarks | Swiss trademark register – filing, protection, owners, Nice classes |
| Patents | CH patents – filing, grant, IPC classes, applicants, inventors |
| Patent publications | Official patent publications in the Swiss Official Gazette |
| SPC / ESZ | Supplementary protection certificates for medicinal and plant-protection products |
Note: Design search is not yet available in the Swissreg Datadelivery API.
Tools (11)
| Tool | Function |
|---|
swiss_ip_search_trademarks | Free-text trademark search (wildcard * supported) |
swiss_ip_get_trademark | Retrieve a trademark by registration number |
swiss_ip_search_trademarks_by_owner | Find all trademarks held by a given owner |
swiss_ip_search_trademarks_by_class | Filter trademarks by Nice classification class |
swiss_ip_search_patents | Free-text patent search |
swiss_ip_get_patent | Retrieve a patent by number |
swiss_ip_search_patents_by_applicant | Find patents by applicant or inventor name |
swiss_ip_search_patent_publications | Search patent publications |
swiss_ip_search_spc | SPC/ESZ search (pharma and plant protection) |
swiss_ip_search_recent_filings | Filter filings by date range across all domains |
swiss_ip_get_quota | Check remaining API data transfer quota |
Resources & Prompts
Beyond tools, the server exposes two more MCP primitives:
Resources (read-only metadata, swissip:// URI scheme):
| URI | Content |
|---|
swissip://about | Server + data-source metadata (provenance, covered domains) |
swissip://domains | List of covered IP domains |
Prompts (curated workflow templates):
| Prompt | Arguments | Purpose |
|---|
trademark_availability | name | Check whether a name is a registered Swiss trademark |
competitor_ip_report | company | IP overview (trademarks + patents) for a company |
recent_ip_filings_report | ip_type, date_from, date_to | Report on recent filings in a period |
Error semantics
Tool execution errors (API failures, timeouts, missing credentials) are
returned with MCP isError: true and a masked, user-friendly message — internal
details (stack traces, raw API bodies) go only to the server log. A specific
number lookup that finds nothing is not an error: it returns a normal result
with match_type: "none" and a message.
Project Phase
This server is in Phase 1 (read-only) of the MCP phased-rollout model: every
tool is read-only and writes nothing. See ROADMAP.md for the
phase plan and the prerequisites for any future write-capable phase.
Architecture
AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code + Continue, …)
│
│ MCP (stdio or SSE)
▼
swiss-ip-mcp
│
│ HTTPS + OAuth2 (IGE IDP)
▼
Swissreg Datadelivery API
https://www.swissreg.ch/public/api/v1
│
├── TrademarkSearch
├── PatentSearch
├── PatentPublicationSearch
├── SPCSearch
└── UserQuota
Transport Modes
| Transport | Use case | Configuration |
|---|
| stdio | Claude Desktop, local development | Default (no extra setup) |
| Streamable HTTP | Cloud deployment (Render.com etc.) | MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http |
| SSE | Legacy HTTP clients | MCP_TRANSPORT=sse |
Transport is selected at startup from the MCP_TRANSPORT environment variable
(default stdio). The HTTP transports are served by uvicorn and honour:
| Variable | Default | Purpose |
|---|
MCP_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Bind address. Use 0.0.0.0 only inside a container / behind a reverse proxy. |
PORT / MCP_PORT | 8000 | Bind port (PORT wins — PaaS convention). |
MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS | (empty) | Comma-separated CORS origin allow-list. No wildcard in production. |
MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS | (empty) | Comma-separated Host-header allow-list; enables DNS-rebinding protection when set. |
The Mcp-Session-Id header is exposed via CORS so browser-based clients can
read and echo it on follow-up requests.
Prerequisites
- IGE credentials (free): Sign the terms of use and send the form by post to the IGE. Credentials are issued upon receipt.
- Python 3.11 or later
uv (recommended) or pip
Installation
# Run directly with uv (recommended, no local installation needed)
uvx swiss-ip-mcp
# Local development installation
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-ip-mcp
cd swiss-ip-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev]"
Configuration
Environment Variables
export IGE_USERNAME="your_username"
export IGE_PASSWORD="your_password"
Claude Desktop
Open the config file:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"swiss-ip": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["swiss-ip-mcp"],
"env": {
"IGE_USERNAME": "your_username",
"IGE_PASSWORD": "your_password"
}
}
}
}
Other MCP Clients
swiss-ip-mcp is compatible with any MCP-capable client:
| Client | Configuration |
|---|
| Cursor | Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (same format as Claude Desktop) |
| VS Code + Continue | Add via continue.json MCP server block |
| Windsurf | Add via MCP server settings |
| Self-hosted (mcp-proxy) | Use SSE transport with MCP_TRANSPORT=sse |
Cloud / Render.com (Streamable HTTP)
MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 PORT=8000 \
MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS="https://your-client.example" \
MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS="your-app.onrender.com" \
IGE_USERNAME=... IGE_PASSWORD=... \
swiss-ip-mcp
Security note: bind to 0.0.0.0 only inside a container or behind a
reverse proxy. Always set MCP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS and MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS for
public deployments — this enables CORS scoping and DNS-rebinding protection.
The endpoint is unauthenticated and serves only public IP-register data; do
not place credentialed or non-public tools behind this transport without
adding authentication first.
Docker / Kubernetes
A hardened multi-stage Dockerfile (non-root UID 10001,
HEALTHCHECK on /health), a docker-compose.yml with
resource limits, and Kubernetes manifests + an HAProxy sticky-session config
under deploy/ are included.
docker compose up --build # reads IGE_* from .env
See docs/deployment.md for hardening, resource limits and
scaling (stateless vs. sticky-session) details.
Tests
# Unit tests (no credentials needed)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -v
# Including live integration tests against the real API
IGE_USERNAME=... IGE_PASSWORD=... PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -v
The CI workflow runs on Python 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13.
Observability (optional)
The server can emit OpenTelemetry traces — one span per tool call plus child
spans for the backend Swissreg/IDP HTTP calls. Tracing is off by default and
adds no overhead until enabled.
pip install 'swiss-ip-mcp[otel]'
MCP_OTEL_ENABLED=1 \
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://your-collector:4318 \
MCP_ENV=production \
swiss-ip-mcp
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|
MCP_OTEL_ENABLED | Set to 1 to enable trace export (or just set the endpoint below). |
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT | OTLP/HTTP collector endpoint (standard OTEL variable). |
MCP_ENV | Value for the deployment.environment resource attribute (default production). |
Tool spans carry only mcp.tool.name and mcp.tool.result.is_error — no
query arguments, credentials or response bodies are recorded.
Logging
The server logs structured JSON to stderr (stdout is reserved for the
stdio protocol). Every tool call binds a tool name and a correlation_id, so
all log lines for one call are correlated. Set the level with LOG_LEVEL
(DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR, default INFO):
{"event": "tool.call.start", "tool": "swiss_ip_search_trademarks", "correlation_id": "da55…", "level": "info", "timestamp": "…Z"}
MCP Protocol Version
The MCP protocol version is provided by the pinned MCP Python SDK (mcp, used via fastmcp) and negotiated per the spec during initialize — the server agrees on the highest version both it and the client support. With the currently pinned SDK the latest supported version is 2025-11-25 (older clients negotiate down automatically). This value follows the SDK, so it is not hard-coded here.
Update policy: the SDK floor is pinned in pyproject.toml; Dependabot opens monthly PRs for mcp / fastmcp updates. Protocol-version or SDK bumps that change behaviour are reviewed in those PRs and recorded in CHANGELOG.md.
Data Source
All data is provided by the IGE/IPI Swissreg Datadelivery API. The API is free after signing the usage terms, subject to a monthly data transfer quota. Check your remaining quota at any time using the swiss_ip_get_quota tool.
Provenance: every tool response carries a source block (provider, source
URL, license) so downstream consumers retain attribution. The result envelope is
{ source, total, count, match_type, results, next_page_token }.
Safety & Limits
- Read-only: All tools perform authenticated POST requests to the Swissreg API — no data is written, modified, or deleted on any system.
- No personal data: The API returns public IP register entries (trademark names, patent titles, applicant organisations). No personally identifiable information (PII) is processed or stored by this server beyond what the IGE API returns in its public records.
- Rate limits & quota: The IGE Swissreg API enforces a monthly data transfer quota per account. Use the
swiss_ip_get_quota tool to monitor remaining quota. The server enforces a 60s timeout per request. Avoid large page_size values (>20) for exploratory queries.
- Authentication: Credentials (
IGE_USERNAME, IGE_PASSWORD) are read from environment variables at runtime and never logged or persisted.
- Terms of service: Data is subject to the IGE Swissreg Datadelivery API terms of use. A signed usage agreement with IGE/IPI is required before API access is granted.
- No guarantees: This server is a community project, not affiliated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE/IPI). Availability depends on upstream API uptime.
Related Servers
Security
See SECURITY.md for the security posture, hardening summary, and how to report a vulnerability.
License
MIT License — see LICENSE
Author
Hayal Oezkan · malkreide
Installation
Run via uv's uvx — no clone or manual install needed. Add to your MCP client config (mcpServers for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf; use a top-level servers key for VS Code in .vscode/mcp.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"swiss-ip-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"swiss-ip-mcp"
],
"env": {
"IGE_USERNAME": "<your IGE_USERNAME>",
"IGE_PASSWORD": "<your IGE_PASSWORD>"
}
}
}
}
Requires credentials: set IGE_USERNAME, IGE_PASSWORD (replace the placeholder values above).
