Legal protection of databases under French law
Sui generis right of the database producer, copyright over structure: how French law protects databases.
Databases are critical assets for digital businesses. Many provide services based on access to databases they have assembled. The initial creation and ongoing updates require significant investment, which is protected under a 1996 EU Directive transposed into French law in 1998. Databases benefit from a dual protection: the sui generis right of the producer and copyright.
Article L112-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code defines a database as a collection of works, data or other independent elements arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by electronic or other means. The producer must not use data protected by third-party IP rights without authorisation (Article L122-4). The short quotation exception (Article L122-5) permits the inclusion of extracts, provided the author and source are credited.
This right protects the investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents of a database (Article L341-1). The investment is assessed by reference to the resources devoted to finding and assembling existing elements (CJEU, Apis-Hristovich, 2009). Content creation is not regarded as a qualifying investment. The protection covers the contents, not the structure.
The term of protection is 15 years, renewable for a further 15 years where a substantial new investment is made beyond simple updating (Article L342-5). The producer may prohibit extraction and reuse of the contents (Article L342-1). Exceptions include private copying, educational use, and extraction of an insubstantial part by a lawful user (Article L342-3). Unauthorised use is punishable by up to 3 years’ imprisonment and a €300,000 fine (Article L343-4). For the related issue of web crawling, see the article on data indexing by web crawlers.
Copyright protects the structure of the database, provided it is original. The author holds the standard moral and economic rights. The protectable elements relate to the arrangement of the contents: the classification itself must be original (a simple alphabetical or thematic ordering is insufficient). For an overview, see the intellectual property services page.
Databases benefit from dual protection under French law. A preventive audit of integrated data is recommended. If you need to protect or audit your database, book a call.
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