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

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.