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    • BASICS OF COPYRIGHT
    • Where... is the work used and which national law is applicable?
    • What... is a protected work?
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  1. English
  2. Copyright
  3. 2. WHAT... is a protected work?
  4. 2.1 Protected work
  5. 2.1.2 Individual character
  • 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

2.1.2 Individual character

Index

The most difficult condition to determine for the copyright protection of a work is probably its individual character, because this always depends on the individual case. The work itself (and not the author) must show a certain degree of individuality or originality. This means it must stand out from what is considered usual and common. As a reference point, you should ask whether other people would have created something similar when given the same task. If this is the case, then there is a lack of individuality and the work does not fall under copyright protection.

For example, the creation of a telephone book – it generally lacks any individuality as phone books are structurally similar and do not require any creative "input"; this is also the case for the pharmacopoeia, a written record with legally prescribed medical and patient information – in this case, it does not have any individual character. If others had edited the pharmacopoeia, they would have designed it in a similar way, always in in accordance with particular scientific or medical regulations (cf. BGE 134 III 166, 172).

A work can still have an individual character even if similar works already exist, particularly if it stands out from existing works in terms of its content’s own characteristics and unique aspects, i.e. other authors would not have done something along similar lines.

Defining the limits of “individual” character is pretty difficult and it would eventually be the judge who would decide on its exact meaning on a case by case basis. Also, people use photos very often and a photograph may have a big value even if it doesn’t have individual character. Therefore, up from 1st April 2020 all photographs are protected under the modernized Swiss Copyright Act. That means, the request of having an individual character is not needed any more for photographic depictions and depictions of three-dimensional objects produced by a process similar to that of photography.

 

Website last updated: 1.4.2020

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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.

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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).

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  • e-mail: info@ccdigitallaw.ch
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