Facts
Documed AG, a Swiss publishing company, sued ywesee GmbH for publishing pharmaceutical information texts from the "Arzneimittel-Kompendium der Schweiz" (Swiss Pharmaceutical Compendium) on its website without Documed AG's consent. Documed AG claimed that the texts were copyrighted works and that their use by ywesee GmbH constituted a violation of copyright and unfair competition.
The Civil Court of Basel-Stadt dismissed the lawsuit. Documed AG then appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower court and denied the copyright protection of the pharmaceutical information texts. It stated that while the texts were linguistic works within the meaning of the Copyright Act, they lacked the required individual character. Due to the detailed legal requirements regarding the content and structure of the information, as well as the purpose-bound nature, the general medical terminology, and the factual logic, the authors' creative scope was so limited that the texts could not be given an independent linguistic character that deviates from the usual.
Protection as a collective work under Art. 4 of the Copyright Act was also denied.
Regarding the allegation of unfair competition under Art. 5 lit. c of the…