In spring 2020, the revision of the Swiss Copyright Act (CopA, SR 231.1) of 27 September 2019 will come into force. This revision will introduce the protection of photographs in Switzerland. Up to now, only very few photographs have been protected by the Swiss Copyright Act, as they had to have an individual character in order to be protected. This will change with the new rule in Art. 2 para. 3^bis CopA coming into force in spring 2020. From then on, all photographs and reproductions produced by similar methods of three-dimensional objects will be subject to copyright protection.

After the federal parliament passed the new Federal Act on Public Procurement (Bundesgesetz über das öffentlichen Beschaffungswesen - BöB) before the summer holidays, the cantons have now followed suit with the revision of the Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (Interkantonale Vereinbarung über das öffentliche Beschaffungswesen - IVöB). On 15 November 2019, the cantons adopted the revised IVöB.

The revised legal bases will harmonise procurement law in Switzerland and streamline many rules. However, different thresholds will continue to apply in the future for awarding contracts by federal contracting authorities and by cantonal and municipal contracting authorities.

On 21 June 2019, Parliament adopted the new Federal Act on the Implementation of the Recommendations of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The transparency regulations for bearer shares will thus become even stricter after Switzerland implemented the recommendations of the Groupe d'action financière (GAFI) back in 2015 (creation of a bearer share register and reporting obligation for the beneficial owner).

The new law is expected to enter into force at the beginning of 2020 and will require action by the boards of directors of stock corporations with bearer shares, but also by the bearer shareholders themselves. Creditors whose claims are secured by bearer shares (pledge of securities) are affected indirectly.

As many businesses become more and more data-driven, the application of computational data science to contemporary business problems continues to gain in importance. Michael Widmer has recently contributed the chapter “Legal Aspects of Applied Data Science” to the recently published book “Applied Data Science – Lessons Learned for the Data-Driven Business”. His chapter and further information is available under https://www.springer.com/de/book/9783030118204

Contact

• Michael Widmer, Dr. iur., LL.M.

The GDPR has been applicable for just over a year by now. What has happened this year and where is data protection in the EU standing today? The SRF editors asked themselves this question and interviewed Kaj Seidl-Nussbaumer about it.

Link to SRF Espresso:

https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/kassensturz-espresso/datenschutz-1-jahr-dsgvo-papiertiger-oder-bruellender-loewe

Link to the article:

https://www.srf.ch/news/international/datenschutz-grundverordnung-papiertiger-oder-bruellender-loewe

Contact

• Kaj Seidl-Nussbaumer

Michael Widmer has been ranked as a trademark lawyer in „The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals 2019“. He is recommended for his work in trademark prosecution and strategy as well as enforcement and litigation. The ranking describes Michael Widmer as “an intelligent, quick and effective advocate” and “a successful negotiator” who is “equally adept at transactional and contentious matters”. We thank our customers for this sign of trust and are very pleased about it.

Contact

• Michael Widmer, Dr. iur., LL.M.

The latest publication, "Steuerinformationen", prepared by the Federal Tax Administration and published by the Swiss Tax Conference (SSK), presents in tabular form the current cantonal regulations regarding the publicity of tax registers.

Only in the cantons of Fribourg and Neuchâtel is there a public edition of the tax factors (limited to 60 days in the canton of FR).

According to a communication from the Federal Tax Administration dated 15 November 2018, the abolition of the privileged taxation regimes of principal companies and the Swiss Finance Branch is already imminent in view of the planned corporate tax reform. As of next year, these special forms of taxation, which are not based on an (explicit) legal basis, will no longer be available.