How do you deal with a copyright symbol©, a watermark, a notice such as “all rights reserved” or with similar markings?
Such distinctive signs on works often cause uncertainty as they give the impression that the work is protected by copyright due to these markings. However, that is not the case. Swiss copyright (and many other foreign copyright laws) does not require any distinctive sign or registration to protect a work. There are no registries or lists in which works or authors must be registered (in contrast to other industrial copyrights, such as patents or brands). Copyright protection depends solely on whether the conditions specified in Art. 2 para. 1 CopA (expressed as a human intellectual creation with individual character) are fulfilled. However, distinctive signs or notices can still fulfil a type of “warning function” to make it clear to people that copyrights may be infringed when the work is used.