Ordinance
on Copyright and Related Rights
(Copyright Ordinance, CopO)

¹ When ap­point­ing the mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion for the Ex­ploit­a­tion of Copy­rights and Re­lated Rights (Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion), the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­sure that there is a bal­anced com­pos­i­tion of mem­bers that takes ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count of spe­cial­ist know­ledge, the four lin­guist­ic com­munit­ies, the re­gions of the coun­try as well as both genders.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the chair, the co-ar­bit­rat­ors, their depu­ties and ad­di­tion­al ar­bit­rat­ors. The vice-chair is chosen from the co-ar­bit­rat­ors.

³ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (the De­part­ment) shall pub­lish the sur­names, first names and places of res­id­ence of the newly-ap­poin­ted mem­bers in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette.

⁴ The De­part­ment shall sub­mit pro­pos­als to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in­so­far as ap­point­ments and ad­min­is­trat­ive mat­ters fall with­in its com­pet­ence.

¹The term of of­fice, resig­na­tion from the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion and en­ti­tle­ment to re­mu­ner­a­tion of mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion are gov­erned by the Com­mis­sions Or­din­ance of 3 June 1996⁶.

² The mem­bers of the Com­mis­sion are bound by of­fi­cial secrecy.

¹ The chair is re­spons­ible for the ad­min­is­trat­ive man­age­ment of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion. If the chair­per­son is un­able to carry out this task, it shall be un­der­taken by the vice-chair.

² The sec­ret­ari­at (Art. 4) may be called upon for sup­port in ad­min­is­trat­ive activ­it­ies.

¹ In agree­ment with the chair of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion, the De­part­ment shall ap­point the sec­ret­ari­at of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion, which shall be headed by a leg­al sec­ret­ary. The De­part­ment shall provide the ne­ces­sary in­fra­struc­ture.⁷

^1bis The em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship of the sec­ret­ari­at per­son­nel is gov­erned by fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion on the per­son­nel of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.⁸

²The sec­ret­ari­at is in­de­pend­ent from the ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies in car­ry­ing out its func­tions and is only bound to the in­struc­tions of the chair.

³ The leg­al sec­ret­ary shall carry out the fol­low­ing tasks, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

draft­ing de­cisions, con­sulta­tions and com­mu­nic­a­tions ad­dressed to parties and au­thor­it­ies;

b.

tak­ing minutes;

c.

main­tain­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion, provid­ing the pub­lic with in­form­a­tion about the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion and edit­ing de­cisions in­ten­ded for pub­lic­a­tion.

⁴The leg­al sec­ret­ary acts in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city in pro­ced­ures in which he or she is tak­ing minutes.

¹ The Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion shall pub­lish its de­cisions of fun­da­ment­al im­port­ance in of­fi­cial or non-of­fi­cial or­gans that provide in­form­a­tion on ad­min­is­trat­ive justice.

² It may pub­lish its de­cisions in a data­base on its web­site.

The Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion has its seat in Bern.

For the pur­poses of ac­count­ing, the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion is con­sidered an ad­min­is­trat­ive unit of the De­part­ment. The De­part­ment shall enter the Com­mis­sion's rev­en­ue and ex­pendit­ure in the budget; the ex­pendit­ure shall be sep­ar­ated in­to per­son­nel costs and ma­ter­i­al costs.

¹ With the re­quest for ap­prov­al of a tar­iff, the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tions shall sub­mit the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments and a short re­port on the ne­go­ti­ations with the rel­ev­ant user as­so­ci­ations (Art. 46 para. 2 CopA).

² Re­quests for ap­prov­al of a new tar­iff must be presen­ted to the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion at least sev­en months pri­or to the in­ten­ded entry in­to force of the tar­iff. In jus­ti­fied cases, the chair may derog­ate from this time lim­it.

³ If the ne­go­ti­ations have not been car­ried out with the re­quired di­li­gence, the chair may re­turn the doc­u­ments and set an­oth­er time lim­it.

¹ Based on Art­icle 57 CopA, the chair shall ini­ti­ate the ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure by ap­point­ing the mem­bers of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board and is­su­ing them with cop­ies of the sub­mis­sions with an­nexes and oth­er doc­u­ments if ne­ces­sary.

² The chair shall send the re­quest for ap­prov­al of a tar­iff to the rel­ev­ant user as­so­ci­ations par­ti­cip­at­ing in the ne­go­ti­ations with the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tions and set an ap­pro­pri­ate time lim­it for them to com­ment in writ­ing.

³ If it is clear from the re­quest for ap­prov­al that the ne­go­ti­ations with the rel­ev­ant user as­so­ci­ations (Art. 46 para. 2 CopA) have res­ul­ted in an agree­ment, it is not ne­ces­sary for the as­so­ci­ations to com­ment.

De­cisions are made by cir­cu­la­tion provided that the rel­ev­ant as­so­ci­ations of users have agreed to the tar­iff and if no mem­ber of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board has sub­mit­ted a re­quest to con­vene a meet­ing; in­ter­im de­cisions are made by cir­cu­la­tion.

¹ The chair shall de­term­ine the date of the meet­ing, con­vene the mem­bers of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board and no­ti­fy the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tions and user as­so­ci­ations in­volved in the pro­ced­ure in a timely man­ner.

² The meet­ings gen­er­ally take place at the seat of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion (Art. 6).

The parties in­volved have the right to a hear­ing.

¹ If the hear­ing does not res­ult in an agree­ment among the parties, the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board shall im­me­di­ately be­gin its de­lib­er­a­tion.

² The de­lib­er­a­tion and the sub­sequent vote shall take place in the ab­sence of the parties.

³ In the event of a tied vote, the chair shall have the cast­ing vote.

¹ If the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board finds that a tar­iff or in­di­vidu­al pro­vi­sions of a tar­iff can­not be ap­proved, it shall give the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tion the op­por­tun­ity to amend its tar­iff pro­pos­al be­fore a de­cision is made so that it may be ap­proved.

² If the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tion does not use this op­por­tun­ity, the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board may make the ne­ces­sary modi­fic­a­tions it­self (Art. 59 para. 2 CopA).

¹ The chair shall give no­tice of the de­cision fol­low­ing the de­lib­er­a­tion, or­ally or in the form of writ­ten con­clu­sions.¹³

² The chair shall in­de­pend­ently ex­am­ine and ap­prove the writ­ten state­ment of reas­ons; if the word­ing raises ques­tions, it may be presen­ted to the oth­er mem­bers of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board by cir­cu­la­tion.¹⁴

³ The peri­od with­in which an ap­peal may be filed be­gins with the ser­vice of the reasoned writ­ten de­cision.¹⁵

⁴ The mem­bers of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Board and the leg­al sec­ret­ary shall be named in the de­cision; it shall be signed by the chair and the leg­al sec­ret­ary.

¹ The fees for the ex­am­in­a­tion and ap­prov­al of the col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tions’ tar­iffs (Art. 55–60 CopA) are gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by Art­icles 1 let­ter a, 2 and 14–18 of the Or­din­ance of 10 Septem­ber 1969¹⁷ on Fees and Costs in Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ures.

² The ex­penses of the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion shall be in­voiced sep­ar­ately. The fol­low­ing are con­sidered ex­penses:

a.

daily al­low­ances and re­mu­ner­a­tion;

b.

costs of gath­er­ing evid­ence, sci­entif­ic in­vest­ig­a­tions, spe­cial ex­am­in­a­tions and ob­tain­ing ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ments;

c.

costs of work which the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion com­mis­sions third parties to carry out;

d.

trans­mis­sion and com­mu­nic­a­tion costs.

¹ The col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tion sub­mit­ting the tar­iff for ap­prov­al must pay the fees and ex­penses.

² If two or more col­lect­ive rights man­age­ment or­gan­isa­tions are ob­liged to pay the same costs, they are jointly and sev­er­ally li­able.

³ In jus­ti­fied cases, the Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion may im­pose part of the costs on the user as­so­ci­ations in­volved in the pro­ceed­ings.

The fees and ex­penses be­come due with the ser­vice of the reasoned writ­ten de­cision.

In the ab­sence of any spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sion in this Or­din­ance, the pro­vi­sions of the Gen­er­al Fees Or­din­ance of 8 Septem­ber 2004¹⁸ ap­ply.

¹ The Swiss Fed­er­al In­sti­tute of In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty shall carry out the tasks of the mon­it­or­ing of­fice un­der Art­icle 39b para­graph 1 CopA.²⁰

²and ³ ...²¹

⁴ The mon­it­or­ing of­fice does not charge fees for its activ­it­ies.

¹ Based on its own ob­ser­va­tions (Art. 39b para. 1 let. a CopA) or based on re­ports (Art. 16g), the mon­it­or­ing of­fice shall in­vest­ig­ate wheth­er there are in­dic­a­tions of mis­use of tech­nic­al meas­ures.

² If it dis­cov­ers such in­dic­a­tions, (Art. 39b para. 1 let. b CopA), it shall, as li­ais­on body, seek an am­ic­able agree­ment with the parties in­volved.

³ It does not have the power to make de­cisions or give in­struc­tions.²²

⁴ In ex­er­cising its powers, it may also call upon agents who do not form part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion; these per­sons are bound by a duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity.

¹ Any per­son who sus­pects that tech­no­lo­gic­al meas­ures are be­ing mis­used may re­port this in writ­ing to the mon­it­or­ing of­fice.

² The mon­it­or­ing of­fice shall con­firm re­ceipt of the re­port and ex­am­ine it in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 16f para­graph 1.

³ It shall in­form the con­cerned parties of the res­ult of its in­vest­ig­a­tions.

¹ The per­mit­ted use of a com­puter pro­gram in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 para­graph 2 CopA in­cludes:

a.

the use of the pro­gram in ac­cord­ance with its in­ten­ded pur­pose in­clud­ing load­ing, dis­play­ing, run­ning, trans­mit­ting or stor­ing the pro­gram as well as pro­du­cing a copy of the work as re­quired for car­ry­ing out these activ­it­ies by the law­ful ac­quirer;

b.

ob­serving, study­ing or test­ing the func­tion­ing of the pro­gram for the pur­pose of de­term­in­ing the ideas and prin­ciples un­der­ly­ing a pro­gram ele­ment when this is done in the con­text of per­form­ing acts of use of the pro­gram in ac­cord­ance with its in­ten­ded pur­pose.

² Ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion on in­ter­faces un­der Art­icle 21 para­graph 1 CopA is in­form­a­tion which is es­sen­tial for es­tab­lish­ing the in­ter­op­er­ab­il­ity of an in­de­pend­ently de­veloped pro­gram with oth­er pro­grams and which is not read­ily ac­cess­ible to users of the pro­gram.

³ Un­reas­on­able pre­ju­dice of the nor­mal ex­ploit­a­tion of the pro­gram with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 21 para­graph 2 CopA oc­curs in par­tic­u­lar when the in­ter­face in­form­a­tion ob­tained by de­cod­ing is used to de­vel­op, pro­duce or com­mer­cial­ise a pro­gram that is ex­pressed in a largely sim­il­ar form.

The as­sist­ance provided by the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity (FO­CBS) shall ex­tend to the move­ment of goods in­to or out of the cus­toms ter­rit­ory if it is sus­pec­ted that their dis­tri­bu­tion in­fringes ap­plic­able le­gis­la­tion in Switzer­land on copy­right and re­lated rights.

¹ The hold­ers of the copy­right or re­lated rights or li­censees en­titled to ini­ti­ate pro­ceed­ings (ap­plic­ants) must sub­mit the ap­plic­a­tion for as­sist­ance to the Dir­ect­or­ate Gen­er­al of Cus­toms.²⁶

^1bisThe Dir­ect­or­ate Gen­er­al of Cus­toms shall make a de­cision on the ap­plic­a­tion no later than 40 days after re­ceipt of the com­plete doc­u­ment­a­tion.²⁷

² The ap­plic­a­tion is val­id for a peri­od of two years un­less a short­er peri­od of valid­ity is re­ques­ted. It may be re­newed.

¹ If the cus­toms of­fice with­holds goods, it shall re­tain the goods for a fee or shall place them in the cus­tody of a third party at the cost of the ap­plic­ant.²⁸

² It shall provide the ap­plic­ant with the name and ad­dress of the de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er, a pre­cise de­scrip­tion, and de­tails of the quant­ity and the sender of the goods with­held in Switzer­land or abroad.²⁹

³ If it is es­tab­lished pri­or to the ex­piry of the time lim­it un­der Art­icle 77 para­graph 2 or para­graph 2bis ³⁰ CopA that the ap­plic­ant will be un­able to ob­tain pre­lim­in­ary meas­ures, the goods shall be re­leased im­me­di­ately.³¹

¹ The ap­plic­ant may re­quest that samples are handed over or de­livered to them for ex­am­in­a­tion or that the goods are in­spec­ted. In­stead of samples, the FO­CBS may provide the ap­plic­ant with pho­to­graphs of the goods with­held if this en­ables the ap­plic­ant to as­sess the goods.

² The re­quest may be sub­mit­ted with the ap­plic­a­tion for as­sist­ance to the Dir­ect­or­ate Gen­er­al of Cus­toms or, while the goods are be­ing with­held, dir­ectly to the cus­toms of­fice that is with­hold­ing the goods.

¹ The FO­CBS shall in­form the de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er of the goods of the pos­sib­il­ity of sub­mit­ting a reasoned re­quest for re­fus­al to take samples. It shall set a suit­able time lim­it for him or her to sub­mit the re­quest.

² If the FO­CBS per­mits the ap­plic­ant to in­spect the with­held goods, it shall take ap­pro­pri­ate con­sid­er­a­tion of the in­terests of the ap­plic­ant and de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er when de­term­in­ing the date of in­spec­tion.

¹ The FO­CBS shall keep the samples col­lec­ted for a peri­od of one year start­ing from the date of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 77 para­graph 1 CopA. After this time lim­it ex­pires, the FO­CBS shall re­quest the de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er to take pos­ses­sion of the samples or bear the costs of their con­tin­ued safe­keep­ing. If the de­clar­ant, hold­er or own­er is not will­ing to do so or does not re­spond to this re­quest with­in 30 days, the FO­CBS shall des­troy the samples.

² In­stead of col­lect­ing samples, the FO­CBS may take pho­to­graphs of the des­troyed goods, provided this serves the pur­pose of pre­serving evid­ence.

The fees for as­sist­ance provided by the FO­CBS are gov­erned by the Or­din­ance of 4 April 2007³⁶ on Fed­er­al Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion Charges.

The fol­low­ing are re­pealed:

a.

the Im­ple­ment­ing Or­din­ance of 7 Feb­ru­ary 1941³⁹ to the Fed­er­al Act on the Col­lec­tion of Copy­right Roy­al­ties;

b.

the Or­din­ance of the FD­JP of 8 April 1982⁴⁰ on the Grant­ing of Au­thor­isa­tions for the Ex­ploit­a­tion of Copy­rights;

c.

the Reg­u­la­tions of 22 May 1958⁴¹ of the Fed­er­al Ar­bit­ra­tion Com­mis­sion on the Ex­ploit­a­tion of Copy­rights.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Ju­ly 1993.