Newsletters
Newsletter: April 2025
Hello everyone, The Federal Court of Switzerland has handed down the reasons for its decision on the appeal on 8 April. Against what PANArt had communicated in the past weeks, the Federal Court did not confirm that the “Hang” is copyright protected. The highest Swiss court rather referred the case back to the Court of Berne […]
Newsletter: Oktober 2024
Hello everyone, Here is an important update in the PANArt litigation, which we wanted to share with you all:First of all, we have filed an appeal against the first instance decision of the Court of Berne in relation to (only) the question whether the “Hang” instruments enjoy copyright protection at all. Almost all of the parties […]
Newsletter: July 2024
Hello everyone, We have received a 96 page verdict from the Court in Berne. In summary, the Court has decided that there is a copyright on the Hang, but no decision has been made on its impact on current handpans.At this point, we have the option to appeal this decision or move on to the next […]
Statement regarding World of handpan’s application for cancellation of the trademark “Hang®”
Recently there has been an application for cancellation of PANArt’s brand by Emanuel Eitle of World of Handpans. HCU is not involved in this action and we do not condone or support it. We found out about it from a recent publication on PANArt’s website. We believe that Handpan builders and resellers should not use […]
Newsletter: January 2024
Hello everyone, This short newsletter will conclude the update regarding the end of September 2023 court date. As mentioned in the last newsletter, on the second day of the hearing, the court tried to mediate a settlement between the parties. During the talks, PANArt proposed a limitation on handpans that would in our view impair the quality […]
Newsletter: September 2023
Hello everyone, We hope this message finds you well. We wanted to provide you with an update on the PANart lawsuit proceedings in Bern over the past few days. As of now, a verdict has not yet been reached. On the second day, the judge mediated both parties in an attempt to reach a settlement. […]
Recent Articles
240911 Feuerring case CH – translation of decision of Bundesgericht
The latest case update can be found here: click here
HCU statement regarding settlement with PANArt
HCU statement regarding settlement with PANArtYou may have asked yourself: “Why it is so hard (or impossible) to find an out-of-court settlement with PANArt in the ongoing lawsuit?” Let’s start with the obvious – a multi-year international lawsuit is not fun to manage. It is also extremely expensive. None of us wants to be here and […]
Legal Advice for Handpan Builders: Understanding the PANArt Copyright Lawsuit
Legal Advice for Handpan Builders: Understanding the PANArt Copyright Lawsuit What’s Happening with PANArt’s Copyright Lawsuit? Hello everyone! At the moment we receive many questions from handpan builders regarding how the court’s verdict in the first phase of the trial affects their work. With this article we want to give you a summary and answer […]
World of handpans court papers
Brief to court of Berne-German version
Walder Wyss filed our second brief to the court of Bern. It represents countless hours of work and is the product of the legal team (Bird & Bird and Walder Wyss) closely collaborating with numerous members of the handpan community along with prestigious external scientific experts. URL: https://hcu.global/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/220511-Ayasa-et-al-v-PANArt-brief-to-Court-of-Berne-1_compressed.pdf
Court hearing English translation (short version)
Regarding the protection of their creations as works of art PANArt claims copyright of their creations based on the combination of 5 features, which are all not defined by technical reasons.