CELEX: C2005/006/16
Language: en
Date: 2005-01-08 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 9 November 2004 in Case C-444/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon): Fixtures Marketing Ltd v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP) (Directive 96/9/EC — Legal protection of databases — Definition of database — Scope of the sui generis right — Football fixture lists — Betting)

8.1.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 6/10
            
         
      JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
   
   (Grand Chamber)
   of 9 November 2004
   in Case C-444/02 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon): Fixtures Marketing Ltd v Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP) (1)
   
   (Directive 96/9/EC - Legal protection of databases - Definition of database - Scope of the sui generis right - Football fixture lists - Betting)
   (2005/C 6/16)
   Language of the case: Greek
   In Case C-444/02: reference for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC from the Monomeles Protodikio Athinon (Greece), made by decision of 11 July 2002, received at the Court on 9 December 2002, the proceedings between Fixtures Marketing Ltd and Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou AE (OPAP) — the Court (Grand Chamber), composed of: V. Skouris, President, P. Jann, C.W.A. Timmermans, A. Rosas and K. Lenaerts (Rapporteur), Presidents of Chambers, J.-P. Puissochet, R. Schintgen, N. Colneric and J.N. Cunha Rodrigues, Judges; C. Stix-Hackl, Advocate General; M. Múgica Arzamendi and M.-F. Contet, Principal Administrators, for the Registrar, has given a judgment on 9 November 2004, in which it has ruled:
   The term database as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases refers to any collection of works, data or other materials, separable from one another without the value of their contents being affected, including a method or system of some sort for the retrieval of each of its constituent materials.
   A fixture list for a football league such as that at issue in the case in the main proceedings constitutes a database within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Directive 96/9.
   The expression ‘investment in … the obtaining … of the contents’ of a database in Article 7(1) of Directive 96/9 must be understood to refer to the resources used to seek out existing independent materials and collect them in the database. It does not cover the resources used for the creation of materials which make up the contents of a database. In the context of drawing up a fixture list for the purpose of organising football league fixtures, therefore, it does not cover the resources used to establish the dates, times and the team pairings for the various matches in the league.
   
      (1)  OJ C 31 of 8.2.2003.