Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2015:735
Date: 2015-10-29
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Second Chamber
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Approximation of laws;Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 29 October 2015 1. Approximation of laws — Legal protection of databases — Directive 96/9 — Concept of ‘database’ — Broad interpretation (European Parliament and Council Directive 96/9, Art. 1(2)) 2. Approximation of laws — Legal protection of databases — Directive 96/9 — Concept of ‘database’ — Geographical information extracted from a topographic map — Included (European Parliament and Council Directive 96/9, Art. 1(2)) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 12-14, 16) 2. Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9 on the legal protection of databases must be interpreted as meaning that geographical information extracted from a topographic map by a third party so that that information may be used to produce and market another map retains, following its extraction, sufficient informative value to be classified as ‘independent materials’ of a ‘database’ within the meaning of that provision. Classification as a ‘database’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9 is dependent on the existence of a collection of ‘independent materials’, that is to say, materials which are separable from one another without their informative, literary, artistic, musical or other value being affected. The informative value of material from a collection is not affected if it has autonomous informative value after being extracted from the collection concerned. A decline in the informative value of material linked to its being extracted from the collection of which it forms a part does not necessarily rule out the possibility that that material may come within the definition of ‘independent materials’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9, provided that that material retains autonomous informative value. The autonomous informative value of material which has been extracted from a collection must be assessed in the light of the value of the information not for a typical user of the collection concerned, but for each third party interested by the extracted material. Therefore, information from a collection which is utilised for financial gain and in an autonomous manner constitutes ‘independent materials’ from a ‘database’ within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9 since, once extracted, that information provides the customers of the company using that information with relevant information. (see paras 17, 22, 24, 27-29, operative part)