ECJ Judgment – Reference for a preliminary ruling – Legal protection of databases – Directive 96/9/EC – Article 1(2) – Scope – Databases – Topographic maps – Independence of materials constituting a database – Possibility of separating those materials without affecting the value of their informative content – Account taken of the purpose of a … Continue reading Freistaat Bayern v Verlag Esterbauer: ECJ 29 Oct 2015
The court was asked as to the extent to which the developer of a computer program may lawfully replicate the functions of an existing computer program; and the materials that he may lawfully use for that purpose. SAS had produced a computer software language and system for statistical analysis, together with supporting manuals. The defendants … Continue reading SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd: CA 21 Nov 2013
The claimants asserted ownership of copyright in football fixture lists as a database right. The defendant denied that they attracted any such right. The judge had found that significant skill and labour went into the preparation of the list. Held: The appeal failed in general, but the court referred a limited questiion to the ECJ … Continue reading Football Dataco Ltd and Others v Yahoo! UK Ltd and Others: CA 9 Dec 2010
ECJ The term database as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases refers to any collection of works, data or other materials, separable from one another without the value of their contents being affected, including a method … Continue reading Fixtures Marketing v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP): ECJ 9 Nov 2004
The claimant alleged infringement by the defendant of assorted intellectual property rights in its database. It provided systems for recovering materials deleted from Nokia mobile phones. Held: ‘the present case is concerned with a collection of numerical data . . the individual items of data are not protected by copyright. It follows that the collection … Continue reading Forensic Telecommunications Services Ltd v West Yorkshire Police and Another: ChD 9 Nov 2011
apishristovichECJ2009 Europa Directive 96/9/EC Legal protection of databases – Sui generis right – Obtaining, verification or presentation of the contents of a database – Extraction – Substantial part of the contents of a database – Database containing official legal data.APIS had collected a database of legal materials. They alleged unlawful extraction and re-utilisation by the … Continue reading Apis-Hristovich v Lakorda AD (Approximation Of Laws): ECJ 5 Mar 2009
Defence had no prospect of success – Struck Out The claimant complained that the defendant newspaper had published contents from a letter she had sent to her father. The court now considered her claims in breach of privacy and copyright, and her request for summary judgment. Held: Warby J said: ‘There are two main questions … Continue reading HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd: ChD 11 Feb 2021
