Proposals in the U.S. Congress and at the World Intellectual Property Organization would impose an exclusive and virtually perpetual property right on databases that could severely restrict access for scientific research and education. Much of the knowledge produced by scientists is collected and distributed through databases and the use of these compilations adds to the efficiency of science and helps to make its discoveries more rapidly available for exploitation by society. Proponents of these sui generis intellectual property proposals have yet to demonstrate a compelling need for such extraordinary protection, which poses a serious threat to the advancement of science and the economic and social progress based on it. In fact, the marked growth in electronic databases over the past several years belies the contention that incentives to produce databases are in decline. This Statement provides a basis for understanding why such sui generis proposals are inimical to scientific progress and presents a set of principles that offer a framework for evaluating intellectual property proposals related to scientific databases.
Science represents an investment in organized knowledge for society and the economy.
Scientists support intellectual property protection of databases, relying primarily on constitutionally derived copyright law that balances public and private interests. Scientific knowledge underlies the use of technologies in such fields as medicine, engineering, and economics, and is integral to many policy decisions made by all three branches of the government. In addition, science is recognized as a critical public investment in our future, a resource with extraordinary dividends, which has contributed importantly to social and economic advances. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution understood the importance of the work of the mind to the success of the nation. Accordingly, the Constitution established the principle of balancing the rights of intellectual property owners with the rights of the public to knowledge.