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Database rights
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In European Union law, the database rights are a form of intellectual property right, introduced in 1996.
In most countries, databases are covered by copyright law to some degree, as being a work that shows originality in its selection, coordination and arrangement. The lawmakers of the European Union decided that in order to provide greater protection to collections of information they should have a unified legal protection for databases. To this end, they created a sui generis right called database right. It was created by Council Directive No. 96/9/EC of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases. [1]
Database rights lasts for 15 years under this regime, but can be extended if the database is updated. Database right prevents copying of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright the protection is not over the form of expression of information but of the information itself.
In many other respects, database right is similar to copyright: it is created automatically, vests in employers, does not have to be registered and is a right against use (not a monopoly).
In the United Kingdom, it was introduced as "The Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997"[2] and came into force on January 1, 1998.
- The Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (United Kingdom implementation of the EU directive)