Although first theoretic publications about copyright in Switzerland date back to 1738, the topic remained unregulated by law until the 19th century. The first copyright legislation in Switzerland was introduced during the times of the French occupation in the
Napoleonic era. Geneva, which joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815, kept the French legislation (a law that dated to 1793) and thus became the first
canton to have a copyright law, affording protection for 10 years
p.m.a. The first copyright law developed locally in Switzerland was that of the canton of
Ticino, which became effective on 20 March 1835. In the canton of
Solothurn, a copyright law entered in force in 1847. The first constitution of Switzerland of 1848 left copyright issues to the cantons; only in the revised constitution of 1874 did copyright become an issue of federal legislation. The first federal copyright law in Switzerland was passed by the Swiss parliament on April 23, 1883 and entered in force on 1 January 1884. The copyright law of 1883 specified a copyright term of 30 years
p.m.a (or 30 years from the publication of posthumous works) and covered works of literature and the arts (Art. 2); photographs required registration and the copyright lasted 5 years from registration (Art. 9). The exclusive rights included the right to translate a literary work (art. 1). Two years later, Switzerland was a founding member of the
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which became effective on December 5, 1887. In 1922 this first federal copyright law was replaced. The new law was passed by parliament on 7 December 1922 and entered in force on 1 July 1923. It clarified what exactly "works of literature and of the arts" were (Art. 1), and extended copyright to include photographic works and collections. The copyright term remained 30 years; pre-existing works that we not covered by the earlier law(s) were now also copyrighted (art. 62). Works that became known to the public only after the death of the author were copyrighted until the shorter of 50 years after the death of the author or 30 years since they became known. In the case of anonymous works, the editor or publisher acquired the copyright (Art. 8). The law covered works of the literature and the arts, including scientific works, maps, and photographs. In 1955, a revision of the 1922 law extended the copyright term from 30 to 50 years. This extension was
not retroactive and applied only to works that were still copyrighted in 1955 (art. 66
bis). Already three years later, work on an omnibus revision of the law was begun, but it took more than 30 years to complete this project until in 1992 a new copyright law was passed. It entered in force on 1 July 1993 and extended the copyright term again non-retroactively to 70 years. In 2004, another revision of the Swiss copyright law was begun with the goal of making the law compliant with the
WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). It was finally approved by both chambers of the
Swiss parliament on 5 October 2007. At the same time, the parliament also ratified the Swiss adherence to the WCT and the WPPT. The revised law entered in force on 1 July 2008. In 2019, another revision to Swiss copyright law was approved by the
Federal Assembly, which came into force on 1 April 2020. It adds copyright exceptions for
data mining of legally-obtained works for research purposes, and expands the exceptions for
orphan works. It establishes that photographs of three-dimensional objects can now be protected by copyright, even if they do not display individuality. They also introduce a
notice and stay down procedure for services which host copyright infringing works, establish that
IP addresses can now be collected and submitted to authorities as part of copyright infringement investigations, and introduce a new remuneration scheme for works offered via
video on demand platforms. == Duration of protection ==