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Is a Database Constructed by Collecting Public Data through Computer Programs Considered an Editorial Work Protected by Copyright Law?
With the rapid advancement of information technology, various information databases have become widely available in the market. To provide a more convenient user experience, software developers often design and develop new computer programs that filter, integrate, and organize data from different existing public databases. The question arises whether such constructed databases meet the originality requirement of editorial works under copyright law and thus qualify for copyright protection. The Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (hereinafter referred to as the IP Court) expressed its view on this matter in Judgment No. 2024-Criminal Je Shang Yi-35, rendered on January 16, 2025.
In this case, the Complainant obtained Patent No. I588700 for a housing search system and method he had developed. Using this patented software, the Complainant collected publicly available real estate data from various local government departments of land administration, household registration agencies, the actual price registration website, and multiple real estate brokerage websites. Through programmatic calculations and manual verification, the data were cross-checked and integrated to build a real estate information database organized by community. This database includes fields such as community name, address, building age, floor, and average unit price, available for user queries. Upon suspecting that the defendant had reproduced the contents of his database without authorization, the Complainant filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor, who then instituted a public prosecution proceeding with the Taipei District Court. After this court dismissed the case in Judgment No. 2023-Je-Yi-27, the Complainant requested the prosecutor to appeal to the IP Court.
After review, the IP Court dismissed the appeal in the aforementioned Judgment No. 2024-Criminal Je Shang Yi-35. The Court reasoned that the database constructed by the Complainant using his patented software and various public data lacks originality and does not meet the requirement under Article 7, Paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act that editorial works must exhibit a certain degree of creativity and the author’s personality in the selection and arrangement of materials to be eligible for copyright protection. The Court pointed out:
1. The database content mainly consists of existing fields and data from government and public websites, and lacks unique creativity or elements that express the author's personality, making it difficult to recognize as creative.
2. The patented computer software used by the Complainant cross-checks public data according to established logical conditions to form the database content. There is no evidence showing unique creativity in data interpretation, classification, or arrangement in the algorithm, and different users processing data with the same algorithm would produce identical results.
3. The database content does not present any intellectual or emotional expression, nor does it embody subjective wisdom or cultural creativity, so it fails to demonstrate the author’s personality or uniqueness.
4. Even if the Complainant invested substantial manpower and time, under the copyright law’s standard of “originality,” mere diligent labor alone is insufficient to merit copyright protection.
The above judgment provides a reference viewpoint regarding whether database construction and data utilization in this field can obtain intellectual property protection, which is worthy of attention by practitioners in this domain.