Forensic Telecommunications Services Ltd v West Yorkshire Police and Another: ChD 9 Nov 2011

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 of data does not attract copyright unless the selection and arrangement of the data makes the collection the author’s own intellectual creation . . however, the selection and arrangement of the data did not make the . . List Mr Bradford’s own intellectual creation. He exercised no literary judgment even in the widest sense of the word literary, and he did not devise the form of expression of the work to any material extent.’
The court went on to consider other elements obiter in case the principle decision proved incorrect.

Arnold J
[2011] EWHC 2892 (Ch)
Bailii
Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of computer programs, Council Directive 2009/24/EC of 23 April 2009, European Parliament and Council Directive 96/9/EC of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/29/EC of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 SI 1992/3233, Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 SI 1997/3032, Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 SI 2003/2498
England and Wales
Citing:
CitedLitster and Others v Forth Dry Dock and Engineering Co Ltd HL 16-Mar-1989
The twelve applicants had been unfairly dismissed by the transferor immediately before the transfer, and for a reason connected with the transfer under section 8(1). The question was whether the liability for unfair dismissal compensation . .
CitedMarleasing SA v La Comercial Internacional de Alimentacion SA ECJ 13-Nov-1990
Sympathetic construction of national legislation
LMA OVIEDO sought a declaration that the contracts setting up Commercial International were void (a nullity) since they had been drawn up in order to defraud creditors. Commercial International relied on an EC . .
CitedPfeiffer v Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Waldshut eV (1) ECJ 5-Oct-2004
pfeiffer_deutchesrotesreuzECJ102004
ECJ Reference for a preliminary ruling: Arbeitsgericht Lorrach – Germany. Social policy – Protection of the health and safety of workers – Directive 93/104/EC – Scope – Emergency workers in attendance in . .
CitedRevenue and Customs v IDT Card Services Ireland Ltd CA 27-Jan-2006
Under the Marleasing principle, or principle of conforming interpretation, the domestic court of a member state must interpret its national law so far as possible in the light of the wording and purpose of the Directive in question. However this . .
CitedHermes International v FHT Marketing ECJ 9-Sep-1998
Where interim orders had been granted following seizure of goods under TRIPS agreement, the court gave guidance on what characteristics where required for it to be considered provisional measures under TRIPS and so imposed time limits.
CitedParfums Christian Dior v Tuk Consultancy BV ECJ 14-Dec-2000
ECJ (External Relations) Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation – TRIPs Agreement – Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) – Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice – Article 50 of the TRIPs . .
CitedSchieving-Nijstad VOF and Others v Groeneveld ECJ 13-Sep-2001
ECJ Reference for a preliminary ruling: Hoge Raad der Nederlanden – Netherlands. Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation – Article 50(6) of the TRIPs Agreement – Interpretation – Direct effect – . .
CitedSociedad General De Autores Y Editores De Espana (SGAE) v Rafael Hoteles SA ECJ 7-Dec-2006
ECJ (Law Relating To Undertakings) Copyright and related rights in the nformation society – Directive 2001/29/EC – Article 3 – Concept of communication to the public – Works communicated by means of television . .
CitedAngelidaki and Others v Organismos Nomarkhiaki Aftodiikisi Rethimnis ECJ 23-Apr-2009
ECJ (Social Policy) Directive 1999/70/EC Clauses 5 and 8 of the framework agreement on fixed-term work – Fixed-term employment contracts in the public sector – First or single use of a contract – Successive . .
CitedChurchill Insurance Company Ltd v Wilkinson and Others CA 19-May-2010
The various insured defendants had been driven in the insured vehicles by a non-insured driver. Suffering injury at the negligence of the driver, they recovered variously damages. Their insurance companies sought recovery of the sums paid from their . .
CitedChurchill Insurance Company Ltd v Wilkinson and Another ECJ 6-Sep-2011
ECJ (Approximation of Laws) Insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles – Victim of a road traffic accident who was a passenger in a vehicle in respect of which he was insured as an . .
CitedWalter v Lane HL 6-Aug-1900
Reporter of Public Speech Owns Copyright I
A reporter attended a speech by Lord Rosebery. His report of the speech was republished in the Times after another journalist who had not been present published a verbatim copy. He claimed a copyright in the work he produced.
Held: The first . .
CitedFixtures 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 . .
CitedAnheuser-Busch v Budejovicky Budvar, narodni podnik ECJ 16-Nov-2004
Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation – Articles 2(1), 16(1) and 70 of the TRIPs Agreement – Trade marks – Scope of the proprietor’s exclusive right to the trade mark – Alleged use of the sign as a trade name. . .
CitedNavitaire Inc v Easyjet Airline Co and Another ChD 30-Jul-2004
The claimant alleged infringement of its copyright in a software system which dealt with airline reservations. It was not said that any code had been copied, but merely that an express requirement of the defendant ordering the system was that it . .
CitedAshdown v Telegraph Group Ltd ChD 11-Jan-2001
The claimant, during his career had written private diaries, including minutes of secret political meetings. As he stepped down from leadership, he began to arrange publication. Before this was complete, the defendant published extracts. He . .
CitedFootball Association Premier League and Others v QC Leisure and Others etc ECJ 4-Oct-2011
ECJ Satellite broadcasting – Broadcasting of football matches – Reception of the broadcast by means of satellite decoder cards – Satellite decoder cards lawfully placed on the market in one Member State and used . .
CitedStichting De Thuiskopie v Mijndert van der Lee, Hananja van der Lee, Opus Supplies Deutschland GmbH ECJ 10-Mar-2011
ECJ Copyright – Directive 2001/29/EC – Article 5(2)(b) – Article 5(5) – Reproduction rights – Fair compensation – Distance selling. . .
CitedFootball Dataco Ltd and Others v Yahoo! UK Ltd and Others CA 9-Dec-2010
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.
CitedAshdown v Telegraph Group Ltd CA 18-Jul-2001
The appellant complained that a part of his confidential diaries had been republished without his consent by the defendant newspaper group. The defendant appealed, saying that the publication was fair dealing.
Held: The exceptions within the . .
CitedHyperion Records Ltd v Sawkins CA 19-May-2005
The claimant had developed historical musical works for performance. They were published by the defendant, by means of recordings of a performance from the scores he had prepared – so called ‘performance editions’. The many hundreds of hours . .
CitedSAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd ChD 23-Jul-2010
The court considered the impact of the distinction drawn by Article 9(2) of TRIPS and Article 2 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty between ‘expressions’ and ‘ideas, procedures, methods of operation and mathematical concepts as such’ on domestic copyright . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, European

Updated: 19 November 2021; Ref: scu.448297