Jacques de Werra

Jacques de Werra is a full professor specializing in the law of obligations (with a focus on contract law) and intellectual property law at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Law and is Director of the Digital Law Center. Jacques de Werra teaches, researches, and publishes in his fields of expertise, which include IP law, digital law, and contract law. He is an authority on commercial contracts and teaches unregulated contracts to students at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Law. He is in charge of the Annual Review of Swiss Contract Law for the Swiss law journal Journal des Tribunaux and has published on various topics of contract law including a recent review of Swiss commercial contracts in English. He has also published on IP transactions (including IP licensing and technology transfer) and on IP and technology dispute resolution mechanisms (specifically IP arbitration and IP alternative dispute resolution mechanisms).

Personal website

List of publications

To Whom Belong the Copyrights on a Software Developed by a University Researcher?

Based on the applicable university regulations, the copyrights on the software developed by a PhD candidate who was working as a researcher/employee at a Swiss public university (the University of Lausanne) within the framework of her employment agreement were found to be owned by the University.

Software in Asset Deals: Buying IP Rights on the Software, Buying Hardware or Buying a (mere) Copy of the Software?

The buyer was entitled to invalidate a sales contract (an asset deal for the sale of a car dealership that included software) for fraud that was committed by the seller (Art. 28 SCO) because the seller had not disclosed to the buyer that it did not own the intellectual property rights on the software but only had a license to use the software granted by a third-party licensor.

Contract management: the risks of not reacting to annotations made by the other party at the time of signing of the contract

Company found contractually liable for the act of an employee as a result of a handwritten statement made by the other party on the contract.