Re-Defining the Rights and Responsibilities of Database Owners Under Competition Law

55 Pages Posted: 24 Jan 2008 Last revised: 20 Feb 2008

See all articles by Daryl Lim

Daryl Lim

Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson Law; Fordham University - Fordham Intellectual Property Institute

Abstract

Singapore protects databases under copyright law. While copyright may be conceptually malleable enough to protect databases, stretching copyright over these factual compilations may be a rough and incomplete solution to regulating access. The EU Database Directive makes a clearer delineation between banal and expressive works, but suffers similar shortcomings while adding new ones with its sui generis right. This article reviews key developments affecting databases in the EU, US and Singapore, and suggests that competition law, with an inbuilt economic framework for determining compulsory access, offers an alternative that may better reflect the commercial expectations of database owners. However, for competition law to properly regulate databases, it is important that stakeholders are aware of analytical pitfalls in order to avoid penalising legitimate exercise of IPRs in databases.

Keywords: competition, antitrust, database, intellectual property, copyright

Suggested Citation

Lim, Daryl, Re-Defining the Rights and Responsibilities of Database Owners Under Competition Law. Singapore Academy of Law Journal, Vol. 18, No. 418, 2006, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1086328

Daryl Lim (Contact Author)

Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson Law ( email )

150 S College St
Carlisle, PA 17013
United States

HOME PAGE: http://lawdaryl.com

Fordham University - Fordham Intellectual Property Institute ( email )

150 West 62nd Street, Rm 7-145
New York, NY 10023
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
196
Abstract Views
1,344
Rank
279,881
PlumX Metrics