NFT vs ZertES: Which Actually Protects Your Digital Art Copyright?

The collision between NFT technology and intellectual property law is producing real casualties. Artists whose work has been minted without consent. Collectors who bought "original" NFTs of work that was plagiarised. Platforms caught in the middle of competing ownership claims. Most of the confusion traces back to one persistent misunderstanding: what an NFT actually proves.

What an NFT Actually Proves

An NFT (non-fungible token) is a record on a blockchain. That record certifies:

That a specific token exists

Who currently holds that token

The transaction history of the token's transfers

An NFT does not certify:

That the person who minted the token created the underlying artwork
That the minter had the legal right to mint the work
That the artwork is original
That the NFT holder owns the copyright to the artwork

This distinction is not a technicality. It is the central legal reality of the NFT market. Copyright in most jurisdictions (including Switzerland, EU, US, UK) belongs to the creator, not to the owner of any token or object referencing the work. Purchasing an NFT — even the "official" NFT from an artist's authenticated account — does not transfer copyright unless there is an explicit written agreement saying so.

The Copyright Status of NFT Art Under Swiss and EU Law

Under Swiss URG SR 231.1, copyright in an artwork belongs to its author from the moment of creation. The author is the natural person who created the work. A blockchain record that says "this token was minted by wallet 0x..." establishes wallet control, not authorship.

Under EU law (Information Society Directive, Database Directive, and member state implementations), the position is identical. The artist is the copyright holder. An NFT is an asset referencing the work — not the work itself.

For digital artists, this creates two distinct problems:

Problem 1 — Proving you are the artist. If someone mints an NFT of your work before you do, or creates a derivative work and mints it first, the blockchain record shows their mint date, not your creation date. Your creation predate their mint — but if you have no certified timestamp predating their blockchain entry, proving prior creation is a factual dispute, not a documentary one.

Problem 2 — Proving what you created. AI-generated art is producing close resemblances to existing works. If an AI system (or a human using one) generates something similar to your art and mints it, you need to show that your work existed in its specific form before the infringing work was generated.

What a ZertES Seal Does That an NFT Cannot

A ZertES-certified seal from Swiss Trust Layer creates a qualified electronic timestamp — issued by Swisscom Trust Services (ZertES-accredited ZDA, eIDAS QTSP) — that certifies the exact content of a specific file at a specific moment in time.

What this establishes:

This exact image file (identified by its SHA-256 cryptographic hash) existed at this certified date
The timestamp is backed by a legal presumption under ZertES Art. 2 (Switzerland) and eIDAS Art. 41 (EU-27)
Any third party can verify the certificate independently at swisstrustlayer.com/validate

The blockchain cannot do this. An NFT platform's mint date is a record that a transaction occurred on that platform, not an independent certified timestamp with legal presumption. It can be challenged as a record maintained by an interested party.

A ZertES/eIDAS qualified timestamp is issued by an accredited, independent certification authority. The challenger must demonstrate the certification authority was compromised — not merely that the record might be incorrect.

The Right Workflow for Digital Artists

Step 1 — Create and seal. When your artwork is complete (or at key completion stages), seal the file with Swiss Trust Layer. This takes under two minutes. You receive a PAdES-compliant certificate with a Swisscom-issued qualified timestamp.

Step 2 — Mint. Proceed with NFT minting on your preferred platform. The seal predates the mint. Any question about whether you created the work before minting is answered by the certified timestamp.

Step 3 — Include the certificate. When listing your NFT, include a reference to the Swiss Trust Layer certificate in the metadata or description. Buyers who care about provenance can independently verify the seal before purchase.

Step 4 — Keep your originals sealed. If you create variations, editions, or further works in a series, seal each version. This builds a certified provenance chain that predates any third-party claim.

AI Art Generation and the Precedence Problem

As AI image generation becomes ubiquitous, the volume of plausible similarity claims will increase. An AI tool generates thousands of images per hour. Some will resemble existing human-made artwork by statistical inevitability.

For human artists, the defence against AI-similarity claims is demonstrating that your work predates the AI model or the specific output. A Swiss Trust Layer seal with a certified timestamp is the most legally credible way to establish that precedence — more credible than a social media post, more credible than an email, more credible than file metadata.

Do Both

NFTs and ZertES seals serve different functions. NFTs establish collector ownership and market record. ZertES seals establish IP authorship and legal prior art. For digital artists who care about both their market and their rights, the answer is not one or the other — it is both, in that order: seal first, then mint.

Swiss Trust Layer Seal Credits Lite starts at CHF 5 per year. Seal your art before minting at swisstrustlayer.com.