Database transactions and management

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Protection for databases

A database can be protected in different ways:

  1. •

    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

  2. •

    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

  3. •

    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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IP weekly highlights—26 June 2025

Welcome to this week’s edition of the IP weekly highlights: a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP. These highlights focus on the key rights of copyright and associated rights, database rights, trade marks and passing off, designs, and patents as well as covering issues relating to confidential information, know-how R&D and IP disputes all mainly from a UK and European perspective.

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