Blog

September 19, 2023

• Trademark law: Apple Inc.'s apple is distinctive and there is no need for a free-standing right. The Federal Administrative Court therefore approved the application for protection of the international registration in Switzerland as a trademark for sound, video and film recordings, contrary to the previous instance (BVer B-4493/2022 of 26.07.2023).

September 1, 2023

• Data privacy: Entry into force of the new Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Data Protection Ordinance (DPO). Companies must have implemented the data protection requirements by September 1, 2023 at the latest.

August 2023

• Pandemic and labor law: The Federal Supreme Court has ruled that the employer is not obliged to pay wages if the business is closed due to an official order if the short-time compensation does not cover the loss of wages. In the specific case, the cantonal court had to clarify additionally whether 100% online teaching would have been possible during the closure and in this way minus hours of the affected employees could have been avoided. Judgment of August 30, 2023 (4A_53/2023).

July 1, 2023

• Relaxed provisions on working hours for companies in information and communications technology as well as auditing, fiduciary services and tax consulting.

February 2023

• Employment Law: The Superior Court of the Canton of Zurich confirmed in a case that an employer must pay wages during the lockdown that occurred at the beginning of 2021. The employer had to reckon with a further lockdown when it hired the employee in August 2021 (judgment of 06.02.2023, LA220011-O).

October 2022

• Trade mark law: The fanciful word "FACTFULNESS" is not imaginative enough to be a registered trade mark. The individual words do not lose their meaning and are descriptive of the products offered, i.e. the educational material/school books. They are therefore in the public domain and cannot be protected by a trademark. BGer 4A_65/2022 of 06.05.2022.

February 3, 2022

• Requirement to work from home and end contact quarantine
  The requirement to work from home where possible will be downgraded to a recommendation. Employers will still be required to take steps to protect their workers from infection in the workplace. Working from home remains an effective measure. The requirement to wear masks at work remains.. Link 

January 1, 2022

• Revision of the Versicherungsvertragsgesetz (VVG)

July 1, 2021

• New Art. 329i OR
• Changes of the Arbeitslosenversicherungsgesetz: Änderungen AVIG

February 1, 2021

• Entry into force of the Blockchain / Distributed-Ledger-Technologie Law (DLT-Gesetz) 

January 1, 2021

• New paternity leave of 2 weeks (Art. 329g OR) and new Art. 329h OR

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