Who owns enterprise information? Data ownership rights in Europe and the U.S.

U.S. legislation provides protection to database contents by intellectual property rights (IPRs) only if “a minimal degree of creativity” was involved in their creation. Although data collection may involve significant investments, factual content is not protected. The goal of the European Database Directive was to guarantee legal provisions for database content and digitized collections. However, the Directive has prompted a public debate about the accessibility to data sets for public use. We reviewed the legal status of database components and assessed the impact of both legislation regimes on a firm's strategies and policies.