13. Databases

This chapter examines database right, a sui generis form of intellectual property protection, the roots of which are to be found in copyright law. It first compares copyright and database rights before turning to cases in which the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 was applied to listings of information in the form of a simple database. The chapter then considers the European Union’s Database Directive and analyses the Fixtures Marketing, British Horseracing Board Ltd v William Hill, and Football Dataco v Yahoo! cases. Finally, it looks at databases, along with the intellectual property issues that they generate, within the framework of the information society.