Category: Featured
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Patentability of Artificial Intelligence systems : clarification from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
The patentability of artificial intelligence (AI) systems is attracting growing interest in Switzerland and internationally. For innovative companies, it is crucial to understand the limitations imposed by foreign courts, particularly in the United States. In this article, Philippe Gilliéron, a Swiss lawyer based in Geneva specializing in intellectual property and technology, analyzes an important decision…
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Trademark Law and proof of use: burden of proof
On April 3, 2025, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to remind a litigant slightly unfamiliar with trademark law that it was not sufficient to allege non-use in a civil action, but that it was also necessary to make it plausible. In the absence of any evidence whatsoever, the party against whom non-use of the…
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Registering a Pattern as a Trademark in Switzerland: Practical Lessons from the Federal Supreme Court’s Ruling
On March 27, 2025 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued a major ruling in trademark law regarding the possibility—or rather, the impossibility—of registering a graphic pattern as a trademark in Switzerland. This decision is particularly relevant for businesses in the design, fashion, and textile sectors, as well as intellectual property law professionals. I. Facts The…
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AI governance in Swiss banks: an operational guide to implementing FINMA Communication 08/2024
The growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the banking sector offers major opportunities, but also poses operational, legal and reputational risks that regulators are seeking to control. On December 18, 2024, FINMA issued Communication 08/2024, calling on banks to actively integrate AI risk management into their governance systems (see not. Cuevas, cdbf.ch/1392). The communication…
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Blockchain and data protection : what the EDPB’s perspective mean for companies
On April 8 2025, the EDPB has released its Guidelines 02/2025 on processing of personal data through blockchain technologies that are currently subject to a public consultation until 9 June 2025. In these guidelines, after having provided a description of the technology of blockchains (I), the EDPB evaluates blockchain-based processing in light of the main…
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AI Governance and SMEs: a roadmap
On April 10, I had the pleasure of delivering some thoughts on AI governance of AI in SMEs. This talk was part of an event organized by the IT company Darest on the deployment of AI and the digitization of SMEs, bringing together many players in a multidisciplinary approach. As the governance of AI remains…
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Defining artificial intelligence systems in the light of the European AI Regulation: the banking sector wins a battle
The entry into force of the European Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act) has major implications for financial institutions, including Swiss banks operating in the European Union. This article analyzes the guidelines published on February 6, 2025 on the definition of “AI systems” and their direct consequences on the use of tools for credit analysis,…
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Artificial Intelligence and the Law: The Anthropic Case and the Question of Fair Use
Author: Prof. Philippe Gilliéron, attorney at BMG Avocats, expert in technology and artificial intelligence law in Switzerland Does building a dataset to train an AI model constitute “fair use”? A response to Thomson Reuters? The Facts On August 19, 2024, three authors filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, the developer of Claude, for copyright infringement before…
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Timestamping via Blockchain Recognized as Judicial Evidence: A New Era for Digital Intellectual Property
On March 20, 2025, the Judicial Court of Marseille issued a particularly noteworthy decision regarding digital evidence: it recognized that timestamping via blockchain constitutes valid proof of the anteriority and ownership of copyright. This ruling is part of a growing movement toward recognizing blockchain as a probative tool in the field of intellectual property—an increasingly…
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US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia confirms in the Thaler case that an AI cannot be the author of a work
On 18 March 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit issued on 18 August 2023 [Thaler v. Perlmutter, 687 F. Supp. 3d 140 (D.D.C. 2023)] refusing to attribute authorship to an artificial intelligence system.…