SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Philippe Nordmann, Marion Bähler, Dario Glauser, Christian Hagen and Samuel Lieberherr, Walder Wyss Ltd
Application Swiss design applications are to be filed with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. Publication can be deferred for up to 30 months. Enforcement and Remedies Design infringements can be prosecuted through both civil actions and criminal proceedings. Length of Protection Designs are protected for an initial period of five years from the date of filing and can be renewed for an additional five years, for a total duration of up to 25 years. 7.4 Copyright Definition Intellectual creations (including visual and audio- visual works, music, works of architecture, com - puter software and scientific works) with an indi - vidual character are copyright-protected works. Software is an explicitly recognised work cat - egory. Further, photographs are protected even if they do not have an individual character. Copyright does not protect, for example, ide - as, achievements, products of nature or coin - cidence, concepts or instructions, or laws and regulations. Patent specifications and published patent applications are not protected. The copyright owner has the exclusive right to determine how and when the copyright-protect - ed work is used. This includes: • the right to reproduce; • the right to distribute; • the right to make a work available to the public; • the right to perform and present; and • the right to adapt.
Protection Protection arises automatically upon the crea - tion of the work, with no registration required. Under Swiss law, it is not necessary to add “©” or ”Copyright” for protection to apply. As there is no register for copyrights, in case of a dispute the copyright owner needs to demon - strate authorship or having been assigned (by operation of law or contractually) ownership. Aside from other means of proof (witnesses, drafts, etc), the Swiss Copyright Act provides for a presumption of authorship, meaning that, unless proven otherwise, the author is deemed to be the person whose name or pseudonym appears on the copies of the work published. Enforcement and Remedies Copyright infringements can be prosecuted through both civil actions and criminal proceed - ings. Remuneration claims for certain types of works are only enforceable by societies for the collective management of copyrights. Length of Protection Protection lasts for the life of the author, plus: • 50 years for computer software and photo - graphs; and • 70 years for all other copyrights. 7.5 Others Switzerland does not have an act dealing spe - cifically with trade secrets. Instead, trade secrets are protected under various provisions, as set out in the following. • Criminal law prohibits persons legally com - mitted to keeping a secret from exploiting or revealing it. It also prohibits industrial espio - nage. Furthermore, a number of secrecy obli - gations are enforced with criminal sanctions
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