Swiss employment law and your side project. What you can build, what you can say, and how to protect yourself. This page covers the three legal provisions that matter for past5pm builders.
Swiss bank, insurance, and government employees who build side projects face three overlapping legal provisions. Understanding them is essential for participating in past5pm responsibly.
| Provision | Question it answers | Risk for builders |
|---|---|---|
| Art. 332 OR | Who owns the IP? | Medium β depends on how/when/where |
| Art. 321a OR | What can you say publicly? | High β gap explanations are the sensitive area |
| Art. 47 BankG | Client data, internal processes? | Low β past5pm projects should never involve client data |
Swiss law distinguishes three categories of employee inventions. The category determines who owns the IP.
Auftragserfindungen β created in the course of work AND in performance of contractual obligations. Belong to the employer automatically. If your contract says "build payment systems" and you build a payment tool at work β employer owns it.
Gelegenheitserfindungen β created in the course of work BUT not in contractual obligations. Employer can claim only with a written agreement. Most Swiss bank contracts include this clause. Employer must pay remuneration if exercised.
Freie Erfindungen β created entirely outside work, without company resources, unrelated to contractual duties. Belong to the employee. Overly broad employer reservation clauses may violate Art. 27 ZGB.
A project is most likely a free invention if all of the following are true:
The grey zone: if your day job involves bLink integration and you build blinkcli on weekends, the bank could argue domain expertise came from the job. The stronger the separation between job duties and side project, the stronger the free invention case.
This is the provision most relevant to past5pm's gap explanations and build logs. It has four components.
Listing a project on past5pm is not "paid work" at the time of listing. However, if the project could be seen as competing with the employer, the duty of loyalty may be relevant.
The loyalty duty depends on your position. High-level employees (C-suite, division heads) face much stricter obligations than operational staff. A junior developer's weekend prototype is held to a different standard than a head of digital banking launching a competing platform.
You may not share information harmful to employer reputation β even if true. Gap explanations that name the employer and criticize their strategy could trigger this provision.
For bank employees specifically, the Banking Act imposes criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure of client information. This creates a culture of extreme caution about any external disclosure.
This does not directly apply to past5pm projects β no project should involve client data. But it means bank employees are conditioned to treat any external communication as potentially risky. Even generic descriptions of internal processes can make compliance officers nervous.
Rule: past5pm projects and gap explanations must never reference specific clients, transactions, account numbers, internal systems architecture, or any information that could be traced to specific banking relationships.
Some Swiss FS employment contracts include non-compete clauses (Konkurrenzverbot). These are only valid if:
Courts can reduce overly broad clauses. The clause becomes void if the employer terminates without cause (Art. 340c OR). During employment, Art. 321a (not Art. 340) is the relevant provision.
These practices do not guarantee legal safety but maximize the builder's position.
The gap explanation is past5pm's most valuable and most legally sensitive content. Here's how to write one that documents the institutional blocker without crossing legal lines.
Reference only what's publicly available. Published API docs, public standards (ISO 20022, eCH), regulatory documents (FINMA circulars), industry reports, and general industry knowledge. Frame gaps in terms of industry structure ("banks generally don't...") rather than specific institutional decisions ("my bank decided not to...").
Some builders may want to proactively disclose their side project to their employer's HR department. This is rare in Swiss banking but removes ambiguity. Below is a template β not yet reviewed by a lawyer.
Dear [HR Department / Line Manager],
I am writing to inform you that I maintain a personal technology project outside of my employment duties.
Project name: [project name]
Description: [one-sentence description]
Public URL: [demo URL]
I confirm the following:
β’ This project is developed entirely on my personal time (outside working hours) and using my personal equipment.
β’ The project does not use any proprietary code, internal documentation, trade secrets, or confidential information from [employer name].
β’ The project is based exclusively on publicly available information (published API documentation, public standards, regulatory documents).
β’ The project does not involve any client data or information subject to banking secrecy.
β’ I do not consider this project to be in competition with [employer name]'s business.
I have listed this project on past5pm (past5pm.net), a community platform for technology prototypes in Swiss financial services. The listing includes a description and technical documentation. No confidential information from [employer name] is disclosed.
I am happy to discuss this further if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
[Your name]
Status: This template has not been reviewed by a Swiss employment lawyer. past5pm plans to commission a legal review (est. CHF 2,000β5,000). Use at your own discretion. Sending this letter is entirely voluntary β past5pm does not require it.
Understanding the legal landscape is important. But the best protection is building something great, documenting it publicly, and letting the community validate the demand.
βΈ submit your project