Copyright law of Switzerland

The copyright law of Switzerland is based on the concept of "author's rights" (Urheberrecht in German, droit d'auteur in French, diritto d'autore in Italian), which is similar to the French copyright law, instead of the concept of copyright used in common law jurisdictions. The current copyright law of Switzerland is the Swiss Federal Copyright Act of 1992, which dates from October 9, 1992 and has only seen minor revisions since then. In October 2007, a revision was approved in order to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty in the act, a process started in 2004 with the release by the Swiss Federal Council of a draft project.

Copyrights in Swiss law last for 70 years after the death of the author (50 years after the death of the author for computer programs). All "works" in the sense of the law, i.e. "creations of the mind, literary or artistic, that have an individual character" are automatically protected by copyright, irrespective of whether copyright is asserted or not, but provided that it passes the threshold of originality necessary to constitute a protected work. In the case of photographs, the level of protection has been defined in two decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, the “Bob Marley” case (2003) and the “Meili” case (2004). These decisions were superseded by the insertion of Article 2 paragraph 3bis, effective 1 April 2020. "Photographic depictions and depictions of three-dimensional objects produced by a process similar to that of photography are considered works, even if they do not have individual character."

Certain documents are specifically excluded from benefiting from copyright protection in Switzerland; they are mostly official documents, such as laws or ordinances, or pieces of currency, but patents or patent applications are also excluded from protection. These exceptions are covered in detail below.