Ministry of Commerce advocates protection of databases

New Delhi, Apr 20 (UNI) The Ministry of Commerce has said the IP protection of databases is a critical issue for science, research, innovation and creativity as it poses a serious threat to innovation in the Indian industry.

In most countries databases qualify for IP protection through trademark and copyright legislation. However, protection for databases under copyright law is limited.

Under the European Union's sui generic regime, introduced in 1996, database creators have the right to prevent extraction of the whole or a substantial part of the contents of the database for a period of 15 years although this term is renewable whenever substantial change is made.

However, the concern is commercially owned private sector databases typically seek to control unauthorised access in order to maximise revenues from subscriptions, even when some of the data they contain may be in the public domain or collected through publicly funded research. The central concern, therefore, is strengthening of IP protection of databases.

It is clear that the issues surrounding access to information and knowledge over the internet are still emerging.In India, it is imperative that we should ensure that proper norms are put in place for protection of databases.

UNI SBJ SS RAI1841