SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Peter Schramm, Timmy Pielmeier, Michael Ritscher and Andrea Schäffler, MLL Legal
11.2 Timeframes for Appealing Trial Court Decisions Under Swiss procedural law, only two instances are available for civil intellectual property dis - putes. Since only one cantonal instance decides on a case, all appeals are directed to the Federal Supreme Court. A decision may be appealed within 30 days after the written opening of the decision. It usually takes between one and three years to obtain a judgment before the cantonal court. 12. Additional Considerations 12.1 Emerging Issues AI While Swiss practice, industries and jurispru - dence are highly interested in AI developments, no judgments on the topic have yet been issued. This is not uncommon in Switzerland, as many core legal questions remain unresolved by courts due to the low number of cases. Swiss courts, however, consider international developments and particularly EU judgments or judgments in member states, especially German verdicts. Developments in the EU can therefore provide an indication of future developments in Switzer - land. In Switzerland, as in most other countries, there is currently no copyright protection for non- human-created content that is generated by AI without human intervention. AI output can infringe copyright if it falls within the scope of protection of a work; the general rules apply. Legal literature deems that the use of content for AI training can constitute infringement if such content is copyright protected (if not solely done for research purposes).
On 13 December 2024, the Federal Council adopted the updated Digital Switzerland Strat - egy for 2025 and defined new focus topics, including extensive regulations on AI. In line with the EU’s AI Act, these rules focus on regulatory aspects and, for example, promoting the use of AI in the federal administration. As far as is known, no specific IP rules are currently being considered. Legislative Copyright Revision 2019 The Swiss Copyright Act was revised in 2019, introducing the following changes, among oth - ers. • To prevent the unauthorised use of protected content, the revised law introduces a new obligation for hosting providers (Article 39d). This provision comes into effect after the hosting provider has been notified of unau - thorised 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 performances by performers and producers of phonograms 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
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