Dr Robert G. Briner

Biography

 For more than two decades, Dr Robert G. Briner has been involved in software, computer, technology and e‑commerce law, in addition to his background in intellectual property law. Robert Briner has authored many legal articles with topics such as information technology inventions, the legal position and the liability of internet service providers, liability for information provided on websites, software maintenance agreements, legal issues around the security of e‑mail. He is the author of a book about contracting over the internet and liability. Robert Briner is a co-author of one of the most widely used sets of model contracts for the information technology sector in Switzerland, the so-called „SWICO/SwissICT Contracts“, which were drafted by a handful of industry experts equally representing the software industry and the users. Robert Briner is a frequent lecturer in seminars. He is lecturing at the University of Zürich (licensing, patents, conflict of laws in IP) and at several technical universities. His further activities include a board position in Switzerland’s AIPPI, where he is responsible for its website (www.aippi.ch), and a board position in SwissICT, one of Switzerland’s leading association in the information technology and communications sector (member of SwissICT’s expert committee, head of its Legal Commission). Robert Briner attended the University of Zurich lawschool, and finished his studies in 1979 with a thesis in civil procedure law with a „summa cum laude“ grade. He then worked as a court clerk in a District Court, and as a stagiaire in a mid-sized Zurich law firm, passing the Zurich/Swiss bar exam in 1981. In 1984 he became a partner in that same Zurich law firm. His further professional stations were the lawfirm founded by himself, Briner Hess Streuli Wiget, and Pestalozzi Lachenal Patry (1999-2006), where he was for some time a member of the firm’s management team, and where he headed the firm’s intellectual property and technology team. He joined our company in 2007 as a partner and currently heads the IP Team. 

Research Interest

Software, computer, technology and e‑commerce law, in addition to his background in intellectual property law.