How does intellectual property law affect the value creation process and strategies of database companies?

Abstract

This study demonstrates how changes in intellectual property law have effects on the value‐creation process of information commodity and related strategies. To explain these effects, three unique economic characteristics of databases as information are focused on: public good, information good, and aggregate good. And, different strategies such as versioning, technical strategies, and limiting the number of consumers and data mingling have been suggested for each characteristic. To examine the value‐création process of databases, a three‐step process has shown: data gathering, selection/arrangement, and presentation.

In the legal process, two main rationales, ‘sweat of the brow doctrine’ and ‘originality doctrine’ have suggested protecting database compilations. The ‘sweat of the brow doctrine’ stresses the effort and investment of the compiler. On the contrary, the ‘originality doctrine’ emphasizes the judgment and creativity in the selection and arrangement of the materials comprising the compilation.