Federal Act
on the Protection of the Swiss Coat of Arms and Other Public Signs
(Coat of Arms Protection Act, CAPA)

The Swiss cross is a white, up­right, free-stand­ing cross de­pic­ted against a red back­ground, whose arms, which are all of equal size, are one-sixth longer than they are wide.

¹ The Coat of Arms of the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion (the Swiss coat of arms) is a Swiss cross in a tri­an­gu­lar shield.

² The ex­ample de­pic­ted in An­nex 1 defines the shape, col­our and pro­por­tions.

¹ The Swiss flag shows a Swiss cross on a square back­ground.

² The ex­ample de­pic­ted in An­nex 2 defines the shape, col­our and pro­por­tions.

³ The fol­low­ing re­main re­served:

a.

the Nav­ig­a­tion Act of 23 Septem­ber 1953³;

b.

the Civil Avi­ation Act of 21 Decem­ber 1948⁴;

c.

the Armed Forces Act of 3 Feb­ru­ary 1995⁵.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate oth­er em­blems of the Con­fed­er­a­tion; these in­clude, in par­tic­u­lar, the fed­er­al signs in­dic­at­ing con­trol and guar­an­tee.

The coats of arms, flags and oth­er em­blems of the can­tons, the com­munes and oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law are de­term­ined by can­ton­al law.

The fol­low­ing terms are con­sidered of­fi­cial des­ig­na­tions:

a.

«Con­fed­er­a­tion»;

b.

«fed­er­al»;

c.

«can­ton»;

d.

«can­ton­al»;

e.

«com­mune»;

f.

«com­mun­al»;

g.

any oth­er terms that im­ply a Swiss au­thor­ity or an of­fi­cial or semi-of­fi­cial activ­ity.

Signs that refer to na­tion­al sym­bols such as Swiss land­marks, hero­ic fig­ures, sites or monu­ments are con­sidered na­tion­al fig­ur­at­ive or word signs.

¹ The Swiss coat of arms, those of the can­tons, the com­munes and oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law, the char­ac­ter­ist­ic ele­ments of can­ton­al coats of arms in con­nec­tion with a coat of arms shield and signs that could be con­fused with them may only be used by the pub­lic body to which they be­long.

² Para­graph 1 also ap­plies to word signs that refer to the Swiss coat of arms or the coat of arms of a can­ton, a com­mune or oth­er pub­lic au­thor­ity re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law.

³ The signs re­ferred to in para­graphs 1 and 2 may not be li­censed or as­signed.

⁴ The use of coats of arms un­der para­graph 1 by per­sons oth­er than the pub­lic body en­titled to use them is per­miss­ible in the fol­low­ing cases:

a.

as il­lus­tra­tions in dic­tion­ar­ies, ref­er­ence works, sci­entif­ic works or sim­il­ar works;

b.

for the dec­or­a­tion of fest­ivals and events;

c.

for the dec­or­a­tion of ob­jects of artist­ic crafts­man­ship such as cups, her­ald­ic stained glass and com­mem­or­ative coins for fest­ivals and events;

d.

as an ele­ment of the Swiss pat­ent mark un­der the pro­vi­sions of the Pat­ents Act of 25 June 1954⁶;

e.

in col­lect­ive or guar­an­tee marks that have been filed by a pub­lic body and may be used by private per­sons in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the use of the mark;

f.

where there ex­ists a right to con­tin­ued use un­der Art­icle 35.

⁵ The can­tons, com­munes and oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law may al­low the use of their re­spect­ive coats of arms by oth­er per­sons in oth­er cases.

¹ Of­fi­cial des­ig­na­tions and terms with which they could be con­fused may only be used on their own by the pub­lic body to which they be­long.

² The use of des­ig­na­tions un­der para­graph 1 by per­sons oth­er than the pub­lic body en­titled to use them is only per­miss­ible when such per­sons are car­ry­ing out an of­fi­cial or semi-of­fi­cial activ­ity.

³ Des­ig­na­tions un­der para­graph 1 may be used in con­junc­tion with oth­er word or fig­ur­at­ive ele­ments to the ex­tent that such use is neither mis­lead­ing nor con­trary to pub­lic policy, mor­al­ity or ap­plic­able law.

Flags and oth­er em­blems of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons, com­munes and oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law, as well as signs that could be con­fused with them may be used to the ex­tent that such use is neither mis­lead­ing nor con­trary to pub­lic policy, mor­al­ity or ap­plic­able law.

Na­tion­al fig­ur­at­ive and word signs may be used to the ex­tent that such use is neither mis­lead­ing nor con­trary to pub­lic policy, mor­al­ity or ap­plic­able law.

The use of coats of arms, flags and oth­er pub­lic Swiss em­blems that may be used un­der this Act may not be pro­hib­ited for the reas­on that the sign in ques­tion could be con­fused with a pub­lic sign of a for­eign state.

Where signs un­der Art­icle 8 para­graphs 1 and 2, 10 and 11 are un­der­stood by the rel­ev­ant pub­lic to be an in­dic­a­tion of the geo­graph­ic­al ori­gin of goods and ser­vices, they are con­sidered to be in­dic­a­tions of source with­in the mean­ing of the Trade Mark Pro­tec­tion Act of 28 Au­gust 1992⁷ (TmPA) and are sub­ject to Art­icles 47–50 TmPA.

¹ A sign whose use is pro­hib­ited un­der Art­icles 8–13 may not be re­gistered as a trade mark, design, busi­ness name or name of an as­so­ci­ation or found­a­tion or as an ele­ment of such.

² The pro­hib­i­tion on re­gis­tra­tion also ap­plies to those cases in which use is per­miss­ible un­der Art­icle 8 para­graphs 4 and 5.

³ Ex­cluded from the pro­hib­i­tion on re­gis­tra­tion are signs for which the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice has gran­ted a right to con­tin­ued use un­der Art­icle 35.

¹ Coats of arms, flags and oth­er for­eign state em­blems or signs that could be con­fused with them, as well as na­tion­al fig­ur­at­ive and word signs of for­eign states, may only be used by the state to which they be­long; Art­icle 16 re­mains re­served.

² The state en­titled to use the signs un­der para­graph 1 may use them to the ex­tent that such use is neither mis­lead­ing nor con­trary to pub­lic policy, mor­al­ity or ap­plic­able law.

³ Coats of arms, flags and oth­er em­blems of oth­er for­eign pub­lic bod­ies, in par­tic­u­lar of com­munes, may be used to the ex­tent that such use is neither mis­lead­ing nor con­trary to pub­lic or­der, mor­al­ity or ap­plic­able law.

⁴ Where signs un­der para­graphs 1 and 3 are un­der­stood by the rel­ev­ant pub­lic to be an in­dic­a­tion of the geo­graph­ic­al ori­gin of goods and ser­vices, they are con­sidered to be in­dic­a­tions of source with­in the mean­ing of the TmPA⁸ and are sub­ject to Art­icle 48 para­graph 5 and Art­icle 49 para­graph 4 TmPA.

¹ A pub­lic body may au­thor­ise third parties to use its signs. Art­icle 15 para­graphs 2–4 re­main ap­plic­able.

² Such au­thor­isa­tion is, in par­tic­u­lar, con­sti­tuted by:

a.

proof by the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­ity of the identic­al re­gis­tra­tion of the sign as a trade mark, design, busi­ness name or name of an as­so­ci­ation or found­a­tion by means of a cor­res­pond­ing re­gis­tra­tion cer­ti­fic­ate;

b.

any oth­er proof from the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­ity au­thor­ising the use or re­gis­tra­tion of the sign as a trade mark, design, busi­ness name or name of an as­so­ci­ation or found­a­tion.

A sign whose use is pro­hib­ited un­der Art­icle 15 may not be re­gistered as a trade mark, design, busi­ness name or name of an as­so­ci­ation or found­a­tion or as an ele­ment there­of.

¹ The Swiss Fed­er­al In­sti­tute of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty (IPI) shall main­tain an elec­tron­ic list:

a.

of Swiss pub­lic signs;

b.

of pub­lic signs no­ti­fied to it by for­eign states.

² It shall make this list ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic.

³ The can­tons shall no­ti­fy the IPI of the signs re­ferred to in Art­icle 5.

Any per­son who uses a pub­lic sign must prove that he or she is al­lowed do so.

¹ Any per­son who suf­fers in­fringe­ment of or threat to their eco­nom­ic in­terests due to the un­law­ful use of a pub­lic sign may re­quest the court to:

a.

pro­hib­it an im­min­ent in­fringe­ment;

b.

rem­edy an ex­ist­ing in­fringe­ment;

c.

re­quire the de­fend­ing party to provide in­form­a­tion on the ori­gin and quant­ity of items in its pos­ses­sion that un­law­fully bear the pub­lic sign and to name the re­cip­i­ents and dis­close the ex­tent of any dis­tri­bu­tion to com­mer­cial cus­tom­ers;

d.

es­tab­lish the un­law­ful nature of an in­fringe­ment if it con­tin­ues to have an of­fens­ive ef­fect.

² Ac­tions brought un­der the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁹ for dam­ages, sat­is­fac­tion and hand­ing over of profits in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions con­cern­ing agency without au­thor­ity re­main re­served.

Ac­tions un­der Art­icle 20 para. 1 may be brought by:

a.

pro­fes­sion­al and trade as­so­ci­ations au­thor­ised by their art­icles to safe­guard the eco­nom­ic in­terests of their mem­bers;

b.

or­gan­isa­tions of na­tion­al or re­gion­al im­port­ance ded­ic­ated to the pro­tec­tion of con­sumers by vir­tue of their art­icles.

¹ A pub­lic body en­titled to use a pub­lic sign may bring an ac­tion un­der Art­icle 20 para­graph 1 against any un­law­ful use of its pro­tec­ted signs un­der Art­icles 1–7 and Art­icle 15.

² The IPI may bring an ac­tion con­cern­ing the pro­tec­tion of signs un­der Art­icles 1–4 and Art­icle 7, or of of­fi­cial des­ig­na­tions un­der Art­icle 6, in­so­far as their use im­plies a ref­er­ence to a na­tion­al au­thor­ity or an of­fi­cial or semi-of­fi­cial activ­ity.

³ The can­tons shall de­term­ine who may bring an ac­tion con­cern­ing the pro­tec­tion of signs un­der Art­icle 5 or of des­ig­na­tions un­der Art­icle 6 in­so­far as their use im­plies a can­ton­al or com­mun­al au­thor­ity or an of­fi­cial or semi-of­fi­cial activ­ity.

¹ The court may or­der the for­feit­ure of items which un­law­fully bear a pub­lic sign or a sign that could be con­fused with it and of equip­ment, devices and oth­er means that primar­ily serve their man­u­fac­ture.

² The court de­cides wheth­er the pub­lic sign must be made un­re­cog­nis­able or wheth­er the items must be rendered un­us­able, des­troyed or used in a spe­cif­ic way.

The can­tons shall des­ig­nate the court that has jur­is­dic­tion for the en­tire ter­rit­ory of the can­ton as the sole in­stance for ac­tions un­der civil law.

Any per­son re­quest­ing pre­lim­in­ary meas­ures may, in par­tic­u­lar, re­quest that the court or­ders meas­ures to:

a.

se­cure evid­ence;

b.

es­tab­lish the ori­gin of items un­law­fully bear­ing a pub­lic sign;

c.

pre­serve the ex­ist­ing state of af­fairs; or

d.

pro­vi­sion­ally en­force claims to en­force in­junct­ive re­lief and rem­edy.

The court may or­der, at the re­quest of the suc­cess­ful party, that the judg­ment be pub­lished at the ex­pense of the oth­er party. The court de­term­ines the form and scope of pub­lic­a­tion.

The court shall provide the IPI with full of­fi­cial cop­ies of its de­cisions after they have been is­sued, in­clud­ing de­cisions re­gard­ing pre­lim­in­ary meas­ures and de­cisions on dis­missal, without delay and free of charge.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully and un­law­fully com­mits any of the fol­low­ing acts is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or a mon­et­ary pen­alty:

a.

af­fixes do­mest­ic or for­eign pub­lic signs pro­tec­ted un­der this Act or signs that could be con­fused with them to items, or who sells, makes avail­able, im­ports, ex­ports or car­ries in trans­it or oth­er­wise places on the mar­ket items marked in this way;

b.

uses the signs un­der let­ter a on of­fice signs, in ad­vert­ise­ments, pro­spect­uses, busi­ness pa­pers, in­ter­net sites or the like;

c.

uses the signs un­der let­ter a for ser­vices or ad­vert­ises ser­vices with such signs;

d.

uses an of­fi­cial des­ig­na­tion or a des­ig­na­tion that could be con­fused with it;

e.

uses a do­mest­ic or for­eign na­tion­al fig­ur­at­ive or word sign.

² If the of­fend­er acts for com­mer­cial gain, the pen­alty is a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing five years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty. …¹⁰

³ Art­icle 64 TmPA¹¹ re­mains re­served.

Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹² on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply to of­fences com­mit­ted with­in a busi­ness by sub­or­din­ates, agents or rep­res­ent­at­ives.

Even in the event of an ac­quit­tal, the court may or­der the for­feit­ure or de­struc­tion of items that un­law­fully bear a sign pro­tec­ted un­der this Act, as well as fa­cil­it­ies, equip­ment and oth­er means primar­ily used for their man­u­fac­ture.

¹ Crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion is a mat­ter for the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies

² The IPI may file a com­plaint with the com­pet­ent pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­ity and ex­er­cise the rights of a private claimant in pro­ceed­ings.

¹ With re­gard to as­sist­ance provided by the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity, Art­icles 70–72h TmPA¹⁴ ap­ply by ana­logy.¹⁵

² A re­quest for as­sist­ance may be filed by any per­son who is en­titled to bring a civil ac­tion un­der Art­icles 20, 21 or 22.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

The re­peal and amend­ment of the cur­rent law is reg­u­lated in An­nex 3.

¹ In derog­a­tion from Art­icle 8, coats of arms and signs that could be con­fused with them that have been used un­til the entry in­to force of this Act may be used for a peri­od of not more than two years fol­low­ing this date.

² The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice may, on reasoned re­quest, per­mit the con­tin­ued use of the Swiss flag or the sign that could be con­fused with it where jus­ti­fied by par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances. The re­quest must be sub­mit­ted at the latest with­in two years of the entry in­to force of this Act.

³ Par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances ex­ist where it is shown that:

a.

the Swiss coat of arms or a sign that could be con­fused with it has been used for at least thirty years by the same per­son or his or her leg­al suc­cessor, un­in­ter­rup­tedly and without chal­lenge, in or­der to identi­fy goods man­u­fac­tured or ser­vices provided by him; and

b.

there is a le­git­im­ate in­terest in con­tinu­ing such use.

⁴ For ser­vice trade marks, par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances ex­ist where it is shown that:

a.

the Swiss coat of arms or a sign that could be con­fused with it is an ele­ment of a trade mark re­gistered or for which re­gis­tra­tion was ap­plied for be­fore 18 Novem­ber 2009; and

b.

there is a le­git­im­ate in­terest in con­tinu­ing such use.

⁵ For coats of arms of the can­tons, the com­munes and oth­er pub­lic au­thor­it­ies re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may, on re­quest, au­thor­ise their con­tin­ued use. The rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions are gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

⁶ Such con­tin­ued use must not lead to any de­cep­tion with re­gard to the geo­graph­ic­al ori­gin with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 47–50 TmPA¹⁶, with re­gard to the na­tion­al­ity of the user, the busi­ness, the com­pany, the as­so­ci­ation or the found­a­tion, or with re­gard to the com­mer­cial re­la­tions of the per­son mak­ing use of the sign, such as, in par­tic­u­lar, al­leged of­fi­cial re­la­tion­ships to the Con­fed­er­a­tion or to a can­ton. The right to con­tin­ued use may only be in­her­ited or sold to­geth­er with the busi­ness or the part of the busi­ness to which the sign be­longs.

If, at the time of entry in­to force of this Act, ap­plic­a­tions for re­gis­tra­tion of trade marks and designs are pending that would have been ex­cluded from re­gis­tra­tion un­der the pre­vi­ous law but may be re­gistered un­der the new law, then the date of fil­ing of the ap­plic­a­tion shall be con­sidered to be the date of entry in­to force of this Act.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² It enters in­to force to­geth­er with the Amend­ments of 21 June 2013¹⁷ of the TmPA¹⁸.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2017¹⁹