Use of Dedicated Meta-Search Engine Infringes Database Right: The CJEU's Stance in Innoweb v. Wegener

Enrico Bonadio 

City University London - The City Law School

Angelo Maria Rovati 

University of Pavia
April 2014

Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, April (2014) 
Abstract:      

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) released an important decision concerning the sui generis right under Article 7 of the Directive 96/9 on the legal protection of databases. The court held that an internet operator that provides a dedicated meta-search engine (which in turn uses search engines provided by other websites to retrieve results) re-uses the whole or a substantial part of the contents of a database and therefore commits infringement, if such engine: (i) provides the end user with a search form which substantially has the same functionality as the search form on the target website; (ii) enables a search of the whole database in the target website and (iii) presents the elaborated results in a way which is comparable to that of the target website.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 2

Keywords: Intellectual property, database right, copyright

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2429930