Database law

Database law is related to copyright law and protects the person who invests to create a database.

Data protection is possible on the basis of good contracts, but ‘data’ itself is not protected. ‘Ownership’ of data is therefore not possible. However, the specific appearance of a certain set of data (‘data’) can be protected.

The person who produces a data collection in which substantial investments have been made has the right to oppose the acquisition of substantial parts of that data collection. Two separate rights are granted to data collections: (a.) the copyright on own intellectual creations (based on the Copyright Act), and (e.g.) the right to the collection of data itself, if substantial investments have been made in the collection (based on the Databases Act).

The rightsholder is the person who bears the risk of the investment to be made for the database. The producer of a database has the exclusive right to authorise the extraction or re-utilisation of a substantial part of the contents of the database. Systematic retrieval of small parts of the database is also not permitted. This is therefore the advantage of a database right: companies can prevent someone else from stealing (part of) the data they have collected. BVDV can think along with you about the protection of data under database law.