Worth making a song and dance about database right?

Abstract

is a trainee at Bristows, who will qualify shortly as an associate in the Commercial Disputes Department. He has a BA in Modern History, and is particularly interested in matters affecting the technology, media and telecommunications sector and the consumer products industries.ABSTRACT Database right has trodden an unsteady course since it was created over a decade ago. Many practitioners wrote off this relatively fl edgling intellectual property right following the European Court of Justice ' s (ECJ) ruling in the British Horseracing Board ( BHB ) and Fixtures Marketing cases, which seemed to severely curtail the protection it affords. However, the more recent ruling from the ECJ in the Directmedia case reinvigorated interest in the right, confi rming that the acts that can infringe it are broad. Hot on the heels of Directmedia comes the most recent ECJ decision on database right, Apis v. Lakorda , a referral from the national courts of recent EU entrant, Bulgaria. This article considers where Bulgaria ' s fi rst intellectual property referral to the ECJ leaves database owners.

Increased use of database right against former employees

“…It is notable that, as reported previously, 2 we have started to see employers trying to rely on database right -an intellectual property right that seeks to protect the substantial investment made in obtaining,…”