Database transactions and management

Protection for databases

A database can be protected in different ways:

•
copyright can protect literary and artistic works including tables and compilations that form part of a database (literary copyright for tables and compilations was removed for databases by section 3(1)(a) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988)), if they are original works
•
copyright can protect the structure of a database under CDPA 1988, ss 3–3A which gave effect to Article 3 of the EU Database Directive, if it is an original literary work. The test of originality is that there must be effort spent on the selection and arrangement of the data and sufficient judgment and skill exercised in the process to make the work the author's own intellectual creation
•
the unique (sui generis) database right pursuant to the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (CRD 1997), SI 1997/3032 which gave effect to Article 7 of the EU Database Directive can protect the data in the database if the database is the result of substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents

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