SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Peter Schramm, Timmy Pielmeier, Michael Ritscher and Andrea Schäffler, MLL Legal
right and neighbouring rights in cases of mass use. The corresponding statutes are incorporat - ed in Articles 40–60 of the Swiss Copyright Act. The goals of the system are as follows: • primarily to enable creators to realise their rights in cases of mass use, which is deemed to be practically impossible without collective rights management; • to ensure smooth legal relations between authors and users, for example by the simple and accessible organisation of licensing; • to control the market power of the collecting societies and prevent misuse of such market power by implementing an obligation of equal treatment (of both authors and users) and implementing non-profit status for the socie - ties; and • to ensure international co-operation and thus facilitate international rights exploitation. Where there is significant increased public inter - est in accessing protected works, the legislator legalises such use by means of a limitation while sometimes imposing a compulsory remunera - tion, which can only be asserted trough a col - lecting society (eg, the limitation for use of works for educational purposes). The five Swiss collecting societies are: • ProLitteris for collecting royalties for the copying and reproduction of written works; • SSA for enforcing performance rights, broad - casting rights, other rights of public commu - nication and reproduction rights of authors in the fields of drama, musical drama, choreog - raphy, audiovisual media and multimedia; • Suissimage for enforcing audiovisual works by film authors, screenwriters and directors;
• SUISA for enforcement of copyrights of music creators and composers, lyricists and pub - lishers in musical works; and • SWISSPERFORM for enforcement of the neighbouring rights of performing artists, pro - ducers and broadcasting organisations. 3.7 Copyright Registration Copyright protection in Switzerland is not sub - ject to any formalities, such as a registration requirement (unlike Swiss trade mark law, for example) or the use of symbols such as ©. A copyright register does not exist. Unlike Germa - ny, for example, Switzerland does not provide a public register for anonymous and pseudony - mous works, either. 3.8 Copyright Application Requirements There are no requirements to apply for the reg - istration of a copyright; see 3.7 Copyright Reg- istration . 3.9 Refusal of Registration The registration of a copyright cannot be refused by the copyright office as there are no require - ments to apply for the registration of a copyright; see 3.7 Copyright Registration . 3.10 Related Rights Work results that are subject to copyright pro - tection can be protected by any other intellectual property right, such as design law, trade mark law or patent law, and by any neighbouring right, if the intangible good in question meets the respective requirements for protection. Swiss law applies the “principle of cumulation” of IP rights.
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