Protection of Databases: Canada, the U.S. and Europe

By: Leigh Walters

June 15, 2001 

Summary

You have asked for a memo outlining the protection currently available to databases in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.  Of these three, Europe is provides the most clear and comprehensive protection through the European Community’s Database Protection Directive, which was to be implemented by member states by 1998. This Directive provides protection to the arrangement and selection of data under copyright as well as protection of the data itself under a sui generis system.  In the U.S., databases can be protected under the Copyright Act as compilations, however the database must first qualify as a compilation, be sufficiently original, to be afforded protection. The classic case of Feist Publications still serves as the essential case in database copyright infringement cases, although several subsequent cases have attempted to further define the ‘spark’ of creativity threshold. Canadian database protection is similar to that of the U.S. in that protection can be achieved through the Copyright Act as a compilation.  Canadian courts have also attempted to clearly define the ‘minimal creativity’ threshold, with little success. Even when this minimal threshold is met, the protection granted to databases under both the U.S. and Canadian Copyright Acts is limited to arrangement and selection. This form of protection make the determination of infringement difficult and uncertain.  The overall protection for databases in Canada and the U.S. can be described as weak.

United States

Under U.S. law, databases can be protected as compilations, being the collection and assembly of data in such a way that the resulting work is original ^[1].  Under the Copyright Act, compilations are granted protection for their selection and arrangement, but not for the actual data used in the compilation ^[2]. Therefore, in order for a database to receive any intellectual property protection it must first be shown that the database is a compilation deserving of copyright protection. In order for a compilation to qualify for copyright protection the originality qualification must be met. One must turn to case law to determine the standard which must be met in order to meet this originality requirement.  Once a database is determined to qualify for copyright protection as a compilation, the author must still prove that the protected work has been reproduced to the extent that the copyright has been infringed.  Several issues are raised in the determination of infringement since the copyright in a compilation is for arrangement and selection and not the data. The courts often resort to a numbers game ie. use of what percentage of the compilation will constitute infringement?

"Copyright rewards originality, not effort." ^[3] With one line, the Court in Feist eliminated the ‘sweat of the brow’ doctrine from American copyright law and set the de minimus creativity standard for copyright recognition.  The court found that compilations would only be eligible for copyright protection if they contained an original selection or arrangement of facts.  To qualify as “original”, an author is only required to create the selection or arrangement independently and demonstrate a limited amount of creativity in doing so. The court in Feist noted that this originality requirement was “not particularly stringent”^[4]. At the heart of Feist was the copyrightability of a telephone directory listing.  The court found that these listings did not qualify for copyright protection as they belonged to a category of works in which “the creative spark is utterly lacking or so trivial as to be virtually nonexistent."^[5]

Since Feist, numerous cases have addressed the creative spark issue, mainly exactly how much creativity constitutes a spark.  The case law suggests that databases which are mere conventional arrangements of data ^[6] or simple lists of names and addresses ^[7] will not possess the requiste creative spark and therefore cannot be the subject of copyright.  On the other hand, directories (names, addresses, clients, personnel, business lists)^[8], Yellow pages^[9], historical sports statistics^[10], and lists of terms and definitions^[11] have all been found to be sufficiently original to be copyright protected.   The required amount of creativity appears to remain, as described in Feist, very minimal, to the extent that any evidence of creativity will be sufficient. In CCC Info Service,  the court stated that, "the required level of originality is minimal, and ... most compilations, merely by exercising some independent choice in the coordination, selection, or arrangement of data, will pass the test."^[12]

Clear indications of compilations that will not meet the creative spark originality requirement were provided in Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publishing Co.^[13] where the court stated that neither industry conventions or other factors which dictate a specific arrangement of data or “obvious, garden-variety, or routine selections” will meet the originality requirement.

Even where a database is granted copyright protection as a compilation the protection is not strong.  The copyright protection of compilations was described as “thin” in Feist and “anorexic” in Key Publications^[14].  Since the individual components of the compilations are often public data, it is not sufficient to show substantial similarity or even absolute identity of the database components in order to prove infringement.  Accordingly, what must be shown to prove infringement is substantial similarity between the elements of the plaintiff’s compilation which provide the copyrightability and the same elements in the alleged infringer’s compilation ^[15].

The determination of infringement can often come down to a numbers game, where the court considers the ratio of data from a copyrighted source versus the amount of new data that is contained in the alleged infringing database. For example, in EPM the court found that the defendant had used approximately 55% of the data from the plaintiff’s copyrighted database, while 60% of the data contained in the defendant’s database was not contained in the plaintiff’s database ^[16]. Given these percentages the court was unwilling to find that infringement had occurred. In Kregos v. Associated Press ^[17], the court found that a compilation with ten statistics was not substantially similar to another form with ten statistics where four of the statistics (40%) were different.

The issue of database copyrightability becomes even more confusing when dealing with electronic compilations which can be rearranged at the users leisure into a potentially infringing arrangement.  This issue was addressed in Matthew Bender II ^[18] where material on a CD‑ROM which could be rearranged in a variety of ways, one of which was the same arrangement as a written database. The owner of the written database claimed that the electronic database violated his copyright. The court concluded that an electronic database only infringes the copyright of another compilation if the machine or device that reads the electronic version actually reads the database in the copyrighted form. In the absence of invitation or incentive to re-arrange the electronic data into an infringing copyrighted form, the act of a user who simply re-arranges the data into a copyrighted form will not constitute infringement^[19].

As is evident from the case law, showing that copyright exists in a database and subsequently enforcing those rights is not straight forward in any sense.  Not only is the classification of a database as a copyrightable compilation a challenge in and of itself, but once protection is granted proving infringement often proves to be an insurmountable hurdle.  Furthermore, even if a maker is successful in gaining copyright protection, the data itself is still unprotected as no sui generis regime is available in the US.  While a gap in database protection has been recognized in the U.S., and several Bills have been proposed, I have been unable to find any that have been passed ^[20].  The most comprehensive of these proposed bills was the Moorhead Bill^[21], proposed in 1996, would have protected the maker of the database from unauthorized extraction, use or re-use of all or a substantial part of the database. This proposed bill died at the end of the Congress section without much discussion^[22].

Canada

Currently, there is no specific database protection legislation in Canada. In order to gain any intellectual property protection, a database must qualify as a ‘compilation’ under the Copyright Act^[23] or if the data remains secret it could be protected as a trade secret but this is not usually the case. Under the Copyright Act, compilations must be original. As in the U.S., much debate can be found in the case law as to what constitutes sufficient creativity to meet this originality standard. Canadian cases on the issue are limited and the U.S. approach in Feist has generally been favoured in the Canadian courts.

In Tele‑Direct (Publications) Inc. v. American Business Information, Inc., ^[24] Mr. Justice Décary, for the Court, wrote “the selection or arrangement of data only results in a protected compilation if the end result qualifies as an original intellectual creation”^[25]. He clarified the originality standard by stating that in order for a compilation of data to be original it must have been individually created and display a minimal degree of skill, judgement and labour in the overall selection or arrangement.  While acknowledging that this originality threshold was low, the court re-affirmed that it does indeed exist.  The court found that the requiste degree of creativity was not present in the Tele-Direct Directory and copyright was therefore denied. This reasoning from Tele-Direct are very similar to those in Feist and demonstrate the same requirement of minimal creativity in order to gain copyright protection on a compilation. In fact,  Mr. Justice Décary in Tele-Direct commented that the judgement in Feist, with respect to the creativity requirement “in [his] view, could have been said in the Canadian context.” Of course such protection even if granted would still be limited to the selection or arrangement of the data and not the data itself. As well, proving infringement, especially when only portions of the compilation have allegedly been used can be  difficult.

The most recent Canadian case to deal with compilation copyright is Ital‑Press Ltd.v. Sicoli ^[26].  Here each party constructed and distributed comprehensive telephone directories, similar to the Yellow pages, but culturally enhanced (art, poems etc.) for the Alberta Italian community.  Justice Gibson adopted the reasoning of Tele-Direct, finding that a minimal degree of creativity is required to gain copyright on a compilation.  Feist was also relied upon and the rejection of “garden variety” data listings as sufficiently creative was adopted.  Sufficient originality was found in the plaintiff’s directory and copyright was found.  However, as in the U.S., a finding of copyright in a compilation does not afford the maker strong protection. In order to prove infringement, the plaintiff must show that there has been substantial use of the copyrighted material. What constitutes a 'substantial part' is a question of fact and the Canadian courts have given more emphasis to the quality rather than the quantity of what was allegedly taken from the original work^[27] .

Europe

In March 1996, the European Community issued a directive which created new rights to ensure the protection of commercial databases.  This directive, officially known as the European Data Directive ^[28], was implemented to provide greater protection to databases, which was previously regarded as insufficient, and to harmonize the law on database protection throughout the member states ^[29].  The Directive creates 2 types of rights: copyright protection and sui generis protection and called for member states to bring the provisions into force before January 1, 1998^[30]. 

The copyright protection stipulated by the directive focuses on the protection of the selection and arrangement of the data, or contents of the database, but does not provide any protection for the actual data or contents themselves ^[31].  In order to qualify for protection, under Article 3(2) of the Directive the selection or arrangement of data must be the author’s own “intellectual creation....... No other criteria shall be applied to determine their eligibility for protection”^[32].  This wording suggests that some form of creative or qualitative input by the author is required in order for the work to qualify for protection under the Directive.  The exclusion of “any other criteria” seems to further reject any ‘sweat of the brow’ creations which did not require creative or qualitative input ^[33].  Further, section (16) of the opening text of the Directive states that “no criterion other than originality in the sense of the author’s intellectual creation should be applied to determine eligibility of the database for copyright protection”.  By equating originality with intellectual creation, this section strongly indicates the Directive’s rejection of the ‘sweat of the brow’ doctrine.  This interpretation creates protection for databases which is very similar in scope to that provided in the U.S by Feist and in Canada by Tele-Direct.(see below)

Article 5 of the Directive grants the author of the database the exclusive right to, among other things, translate, rearrange, alter, distribute, or reproduce (temporarily or permanently) all or part of the collection. Article 6(2) allows member states to limit these rights for specific purposes such as reproduction for private purposes (non-electronic only), teaching/scientific research, administrative or judicial procedures, and other traditional exceptions to copyright under national law.

Recognizing that the creation of databases involves “considerable human technical and financial resources” the European Community, in addition to the copyright protection discussed above used to protect the arrangement and selection of data, created sui generis rights under the Directive to protect the actual contents/data contained in the database. These rights, as listed in Article 7 of the Directive, are granted to the maker of the database if the maker can demonstrate that there has been “qualitatively and/or quantitatively a substantial investment in either obtaining, verification or presentation” of the data. If this can be successfully demonstrated by the maker, Article 7(1) prevents the extraction or re-utilization of the data, whole or part, when evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively.  A maker whose database is afforded protection under Article 7(1) may transfer, assign or licence these rights under Article 7(3). Article 9 provides exceptions to the sui generis protection at the discretion of member states similar to those permitted under Article 6(2) for copyright.