Sweating in Europe : The European Database Directive

Authors

• Amar A. Hasan

Abstract

The United States Supreme Court rejected the "sweat of the brow" doctrine and copyright or alternative methods are inadequate for protecting non-creative databases. The European Database Directive protects "substantial investment" in a database regardless of whether copyright protection is available. However, by incorporating the "spin-off' doctrine, the Directive provides only limited protection for "sole-source" databases, the primary market of the database industry. Also, the ECJ has made proving infringement more difficult by expanding its meaning yet simultaneously narrowing its scope and leaving ambiguities. Thus, although European database owners may technically have more protection, many of them, especially providers of "sole-source" databases, are in a similar situation to their U.S. counterparts, without adequate "sweat of the brow" protection. Allowing the fruit of one's labor to be used by others without compensation reduces economic incentive and hinders the advancement of science.

Recommended Citation

Amar A. Hasan, Sweating in Europe : The European Database Directive, 9 Computer L. Rev. & Tech. J. 479 (2005)