Swiss Federal Court dismisses appeal

It is with great joy that we note the recent rejection by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court of the appeal against the judgment of the Bernese High Court of Autumn 2024.

For over 30 years, Sabina Schärer and Felix Rohner have been creating sound objects with their composite Pang and passing them on to people who work with them in their own way. One of these instruments, the Hang, has received worldwide recognition and, ten years after its introduction, has been copied many times in its external appearance. A group of producers of plagiarized copies has not recognized the unique combination of sound and form and tried to persuade the judges that it is a banality and simply a product of chance.
This is not the case.

Several courts in Europe and Switzerland have recognized that the personalities of the creators are expressed in the Hang and that they have created something unique. Sabina Schärer and Felix Rohner see their work as a passing on of an impulse that they received from Trinidad and Tobago. They will continue to work on this project and to tune sound objects that correspond to their hands, their souls and their hearts.

The case now goes back to the Bern Commercial Court, which will decide on the infringement issue. The parties can then appeal to the Federal Supreme Court against the final Bern decision as a whole.