SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Peter Schramm, Timmy Pielmeier, Michael Ritscher and Andrea Schäffler, MLL Legal
lecting society. The initiative aims to strengthen the economic position of journalism in the digital environ - ment, and aligns Switzerland with similar measures in other jurisdictions, particularly the press publishers right stipulated in Article 15 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 (Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive). Legislative Copyright and Trade Mark Code Revision 2025 The partial revision of the Swiss Copyright Act (URG) and Trademark Act (MSchG), effective 1 July 2025, introduced a simplified procedure for destroying counterfeit goods in small consignments. It applies to shipments containing up to three items and weighing no more than five kilograms. Under this system, the IPI now handles the process after Customs intercepts the goods, notifying the recipient and granting a ten-day period to object. If the recipient does not respond or agrees, the goods are destroyed within three months at the rights-holder’s expense; if they object, the case reverts to the ordinary procedure. This change aims to reduce administrative burdens, accelerate enforce - ment and align Swiss practice with EU standards. Legislative Copyright Revision 2019 The Swiss Copyright Act was revised in 2019, intro - ducing the following changes, among others. • To prevent the unauthorised use of protected content, the revised law introduces a new obliga - tion for hosting providers (Article 39d). This provi - sion comes into effect after the hosting provider has been notified of unauthorised content being uploaded and has removed it in accordance with the general rules (take-down). Under the new stay-down and keep-down obligation of Article 39d, hosting providers must ensure that protected content does not become illegally accessible again through their platform. • A neighbouring right has been introduced for the protection of photographs that do not fulfil the originality criterion (snapshot-protection). • The term of protection of related rights for perfor - mances by performers and producers of phono - grams and videograms is extended from 50 to 70 years (Article 39 (1)). This brings Swiss law into line with EU law and will be of particular benefit to bands covering music from the 50s and 60s.
• The revised law provides that authors are entitled to remuneration for the exploitation of audiovisual works via online platforms (Article 13a). A similar provision is also included for performing artists (Article 35), with compulsory collective manage - ment for the assertion of corresponding claims. • An express exception from copyright protection for text and data mining for scientific purposes has been introduced in Article 24d. Landmark Judgments The Swiss legal system produces a relatively small amount of case law. Consequently, the following judg - ments have had significant impact. • In 2022, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court con - firmed copyright protection for a Barbecue-Grill (so-called “Feuerring”) as a work of applied art, considering inter alia a “surprising effect” the design communicates to the observer. • The Berne Commercial Court confirmed copyright protection for a musical instrument (so-called “Hang”) as a work of applied art, considering inter alia questions of technical determination and prior art. • The Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed trade mark protection of two three-dimensional marks depicting the “Lindt Gold Bunny”, and granted injunctive relief against a similar chocolate gold bunny despite several differences in design. • The Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that the customisation of originals of high-quality branded watches (Rolex case) does not constitute trade mark infringement if the modified product is pro - vided to the contractor by the customer. The plac - ing of modified goods on the market, on the other hand, constitutes trade mark infringement. Influence of Foreign Case Law on Swiss Court Decisions As mentioned before, Swiss courts rely heavily on jurisdiction in the EU and its member states, particu - larly Germany, to assess unclarified legal questions in Switzerland. The legislature’s reasonings provided alongside IP statutory law regularly declare alignment with EU law as an explicit objective of Swiss legis - lation. This can be considered a legal basis for the application of European judgments in Switzerland
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