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 defendant of their product. They said that the defendant had extracted about 82.5% of its database of laws and cases and reproduced them for its own purposes. The defendants, including former employees of the claimant said that they had themselves spent substantial sums collecting the material from other public sources. The national court asked how to interpret ‘permanent transfer’ and ‘temporary transfer’ together.
Held: The documents incude not only the formal public material, but editors notes and references, histories and links. ‘The decisive criterion . . is to be found in the existence of an act of ‘transfer’ of all or part of the contents of the database concerned to another medium, whether of the same nature as the medium of that database or of a different nature. Such a transfer implies that all or part of the contents of a database are to be found in a medium other than that of the original database.’ and ‘ the distinction between permanent transfer and temporary transfer lies in the duration of storage on another medium of materials extracted from the original database. There is permanent transfer when those materials are stored in a permanent manner on a medium other than the original medium, whereas the transfer is temporary if the materials are stored for a limited period on another medium, such as the operating memory of a computer.’ The notion of the sui generis database right is ‘unencumbered by considerations relating, in particular, to the substantive content of the body of materials in question.’ and ‘the sui generis right applies independently of whether the database and/or its contents are protected, inter alia, by copyright.’
C-545/07, [2009] EUECJ C-545/07
Bailii
Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases
Citing:
Cited – Union Royale Belge des societes de Football Association and others v Bosman and others ECJ 15-Dec-1995
bosmanECJ1995
A request for the Court to order a measure of inquiry under Article 60 of the Rules of Procedure, made by a party after the close of the oral procedure, can be admitted only if it relates to facts which may have a decisive influence and which the . .
Cited – Centro Europa 7 SrL v Ministero delle Comunicazioni e Autorit- per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni, Direzione generale per le concessioni e le autorizzazioni del Ministero delle Comunicazioni (Industrial Policy) ECJ 12-Sep-2007
Europa Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato (Italy). Freedom to provide services Electronic communications Television broadcasting activities New common regulatory framework Allocation . .
Cited – Idryma Koinonikon Asfaliseon (IKA) v Vasilios Ioannidis ECJ 25-Feb-2003
Europa Social security – Hospital treatment of a pensioner during a stay in a Member State other than the State in which he resides – Conditions for funding – Articles 31 and 96 of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 – . .
Cited – PreussenElektra v Schleswag AG, in the presence of Windpark Reussenkoge III GmbH and Land Schleswig-Holstein ECJ 13-Mar-2001
Europa Electricity – Renewable sources of energy – National legislation requiring electricity supply undertakings to purchase electricity at minimum prices and apportioning the resulting costs between those . .
Cited – The British Horseracing Board Ltd and Others v William Hill Organization Ltd ECJ 9-Nov-2004
bhb_whECJ2004
The claimant sought to prevent re-use by the defendant of information from its horse racing subscription service. They claimed that they had a database right in the information. It cost andpound;4m per year to assemble.
Held: The expression . .
Cited – Motosykletistiki Omospondia Ellados NPID (Motoe) (Competition) ECJ 6-Mar-2008
Europa Competition Sport Articles 82 EC and 86 EC Definition of undertaking Economic activities Abuse of a dominant position Grant of special or exclusive rights Non-profit-making organisation which participates . .
Cited – Fixtures Marketing v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP) ECJ 9-Nov-2004
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 . .
Cited – Directmedia Publishing v Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg (Approximation of Laws) ECJ 10-Jul-2008
Europa Legal protection of databases Directive 96/9/EC – Notion of ‘extraction’ in Article 7(2)(a) of Directive 96/9/EC. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
European, Intellectual Property
Leading Case
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.317887
