The Legal Protection of Databases

Inventions can be patented, knowledge can be protected through the law of trade secrets, but information itself? The form or medium of information can be protected by copyright but information itself is more difficult. It cannot be owned. So how can the law effectively protect it?

Both the law - and hence the commercial realities - remain uncertain. Professional advisers must at least be fully up to speed with what the law currently says [and doesn't say] and what the implications are.

This timely new Special Report examines the current EU [and so EEA] law on the legal protection of databases, including the sui generis right established when the European Union adopted its Directive 96/9/EC in 1996.

About the Author

Simon Chalton is a solicitor and a consultant to Bird & Bird, a City of London law firm with special interests in computer law. His experience with computers and the law relating to information technology goes back to the late 1960s. During this period he contributed to the specification and design of computer applications programs and their implementation, and he has served as a non-executive director and chairman of a software house. His experience has included advising on computer and software contracts, software licensing and software protection, computer-related disputes and data protection.