## 5 Conclusions and Recommendations  
Recently, the discussion and attention of the maritime industry have been focused on digital platform businesses represented by autonomous vessels, smart ports, and blockchains. In the era of digital data, data are expected to gain traction faster than oil- and mineral-based resources like oil, coal, and iron ore. With the advancement of information and science technology in the maritime sector, various forms of material goods and accumulated information play vital roles in ports, marine transportation control, satellite communication, logistics, and vessel operation. There are increasing numbers of intangible forms that cannot be included in the scope of \"things\" as defined by the Korean Civil Act, including software, networks, the cloud environment, digital records that exist in the virtual space of online programs, and, quite possibly, data. Intangible things, generated from new technological changes affecting land and sea, are challenging the existential scope of the definition of \"things\" in Article 98 under the Korean Civil Act. Maritime data will soon be at the center of various legal debates that individual laws cannot resolve (e.g., the Basic Intellectual Property Act, the Copyright Act, or the Privacy Act). Nevertheless, they will affect ship operations and the entire shipping and logistics industries [31]. In particular, legal issues related to maritime data need to be interpreted and resolved, based on the Civil Act, because of the lack of individual laws related to actual maritime data, such as the Basic Law on Intellectual Property, Copyright Act, Personal Information Protection Act, Maritime Safety Act, Marine Environment Management Act, and Seafarers Act. These are based on the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), and the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC; International Labor Organization) formed by the International Maritime Organization. Therefore, this study, despite being at its initial stage, has analyzed the concept and trading structure of maritime data linked to autonomous vessels and reviewed whether data should be considered as \"things\" in the Civil Act and the object of the right to ownership as key issues because these are the core elements required to interpret the right to ownership. This study reviewed the protections outlined under Korea's Copyright Act and Personal Information Protection Act. In accordance with existing academic theories and criteria stated in the legislation, the Acts do not recognize the right to data ownership. However, economic, social, and cultural changes and scientific and technological advancements are making it necessary to explicitly state whether data are \"things\"; without this, we are blindly navigating the newly developing areas and are unable to ensure that data meet special requirements under the Bond Act. Thus, we propose establishing detailed provisions to advance the logistics of contracts, by developing a standard maritime transaction license agreement or a transfer agreement, in collaboration between the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board and relevant universities and specialized institutions. This could ensure that copyright protections as property rights could be applied to maritime data-trading contracts, establishing maritime data as a \"thing\" under the provisions of the trading contract after meeting general requirements. It is necessary to prepare the scope and criteria for data interpretation because data that are the purchase object of maritime data sales contracts can be applied to the data that were reprocessed and included in databases to create copyrighted work.