The Database as a Business Asset: The Anomalous Position of the Database in New Zealand Copyright Law and the Implications for Knowledge Management
Susan F Corbett.
As New Zealand strives to recreate itself as a 'knowledge economy', the commercial worth of knowledge remains unclear. Intellectual property laws recognise that the owners of various forms of knowledge are entitled to certain legally enforceable rights, but it is often only by entering into litigation that the question of whether intellectual property actually exists in specific knowledge can be affirmed. While such judicial affirmation may encourage some kind of valuation to be placed upon the knowledge, a refusal to find intellectual property negates any putative value in that knowledge.
The knowledge incorporated within a database, which often comprises a major asset of a business, will only be deemed to be copyright and therefore worthy of protection as intellectual property if the new Zealand courts find that 'sufficient time, skill and effort' have been expended in its production. Should the courts fail to find intellectual property in the database then its value is reduced to that of the physical list - be it in printed or electronic format.
The paper examines the issue of databases as assets of an organisation and describes the results of a survey which investigated the role of databases within a sample of New Zealand e-businesses, the role played by intellectual property law in acknowledging any rights of the e-business in the knowledge within its databases, and the financial value of those rights.
The knowledge incorporated within a database, which often comprises a major asset of a business, will only be deemed to be copyright and therefore worthy of protection as intellectual property if the new Zealand courts find that 'sufficient time, skill and effort' have been expended in its production. Should the courts fail to find intellectual property in the database then its value is reduced to that of the physical list - be it in printed or electronic format.
The paper examines the issue of databases as assets of an organisation and describes the results of a survey which investigated the role of databases within a sample of New Zealand e-businesses, the role played by intellectual property law in acknowledging any rights of the e-business in the knowledge within its databases, and the financial value of those rights.
Presenters
Susan F Corbett
(New Zealand)
Lecturer in Commercial Law
School of Accountancy and Commercial Law Faculty of Commerce and Administration
Victoria University of Wellington
School of Accountancy and Commercial Law Faculty of Commerce and Administration
Victoria University of Wellington
Formerly in practice as a solicitor in London, Susan has also worked for Butterworths UK as a legal editor. She now teaches commercial law to business students in Wellington, New Zealand, where her main areas of interest are intellectual property law and the law of e-commerce.
Keywords
- Database
- Intellectual Property
- Copyright
- E-business
- Knowledge
(30 min Conference Paper,
English)