English
Deutsch English Français Italiano
  • FAQs
  • Knowledge base
    • BASICS OF COPYRIGHT
    • Where... is the work used and which national law is applicable?
    • What... is a protected work?
    • Who... owns the copyright in the work?
    • Which... rights in the work are protected?
    • How... may other people use a work?
    • And... responsibility and sanctions?
    • Copyright and social media
  • Training
    • Training Offer
    • Case Studies
  • Advising
  • About
    • CCdigitallaw
    • Affiliation
    • Events
  • News Archive

  1. English
  2. Copyright
  3. 2. WHAT... is a protected work?
  4. 2.1 Protected work
  5. 2.1.1 Intellectual creation
  • Basics of Copyright
  • 1. WHERE... is the work used and which national law is applicable?
  • 2. WHAT... is a protected work?
    • 2.1 Protected work
      • 2.1.1 Intellectual creation
      • 2.1.2 Individual character
      • 2.1.3 Form of expression
      • 2.1.4 Drafts, titles and parts of works
    • 2.2 Categories of work
    • 2.3 Works excluded from protection
    • 2.4 Derivative works
    • 2.5 Collections
    • 2.6 How long is a work protected?
  • 3. WHO... owns the copyright in the work?
  • 4. WHICH... rights in the work are protected?
  • 5. HOW... may other people use a work?
  • 5b. HOW ... can other people use a work? - Contractual licenses
  • 6. AND... responsibility and sanctions?
  • 7. Copyright and social media

2.1.1 Intellectual creation

Index FAQ

A protected work must be an expression of the human mind. Consequently, everything that is not created by the human hand is not a protected work.

Works excluded from protection are therefore purely natural phenomena (e.g. stones, plants, etc.) or purely machine or computer-generated results. However, a work can exist when something new is designed from objects such as these (e.g. a painting or a photograph of a plant, or an object designed by human hands with a 3D printer) through human intervention.

The work in question must also be a creation. An intellectual creation is the "manifestation of a human expression of thought". However, that often does not help in specific individual cases. Instead, it is more useful to ask whether a person has deliberately created something which did not previously exist. Then this can be considered an intellectual creation. It is more difficult when there has been something similar in the past or a person has (re)used templates, forms, styles, etc. Then the question needs to be asked whether the afore-mentioned has simply been reproduced or imitated, or whether new ideas and thoughts have awarded it creative expression.

The screen prints of Andy Warhol (e.g. Marilyn Monroe or Mao) or the photo of Bob Marley with windswept dreadlocks taken by a Swiss photographer at an open-air concert are good examples of this. Both cases are the expression of the human creative will to create something new or “to put something which has already taken shape in someone's head to paper" (cf. the decision of the Federal Supreme Court 130 III 168, 175). The same can be said for the machine sculptures created by Jean Tinguely, which reflect the artist's thoughts through their playfulness.

FAQ

2.1.1-1 Is an image from a surveillance camera a protected work?

No, this is not a human (intellectual) creation; instead, the image is created completely automatically without any human intervention.

Services

FAQ FAQs, developed from real cases, allow you to quickly find answers to everyday digital law questions.
Knowledge Base A detailed knowledge base provides you insights into various legal aspects, currently with a focus on copyright issues.
Training A vast choice of on- and offline trainings are available together with interactive case studies to work through.
Advising A team of legal experts with competences ranging from copyright to data protection and licensing agreements are available for your questions.

About


CCdigitallaw is a national Competence Center in Digital Law that supports Swiss Higher Education Institutions (students, academic and administrative staff) in dealing with legal questions related to the digitization process and the use of new media and technologies. To do so, the Center offers various services such as a detailed knowledge base, FAQs, a wide range of on- and offline training activities and an advising service.

Partners


CCdigitallaw has been created through a project funded by swissuniversities. The center is the result of a collaboration between the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), University of Basel (UNIBAS), University of Neuchâtel (UNINE), University of Geneva (UNIGE), and the Conference of Swiss Libraries (CBU-KUB).

Contacts


The team of legal experts working for the Center will be more than happy to answer your questions personally, by e-mail, phone or chat.
  • e-mail: info@ccdigitallaw.ch
  • tel: +41586664930
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

 swissuniversities.png

Disclaimer
de gb fr it

Cookies

This platform uses cookies for sessions, user support, analytics and user feedback. The session and user support cookies are necessary and cannot be disabled but you can opt out of the analytics and user feedback.
Analytics
User feedback