Geographical information able to be constituted as 'independent materials' from a 'database'

DATABASE LAW

Geographical information utilised from topographic maps has sufficient autonomous value to be constituted as ‘independent materials’ from a ‘database’

"Therefore, information from a collection which is utilised for financial gain and in an autonomous manner, such as the information extracted by Verlag Esterbauer from the Land of Bavaria’s topographic maps, 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.
24 It follows that 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.
25 As to the referring court’s question concerning the assessment of the autonomous value of the materials making up topographic maps, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, in particular the question whether that value must be assessed in the light of the purpose of such maps or the use that would be made of them by a typical user, it must be remembered that topographic maps can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including planning travel between two points, preparing a bicycle trip, searching for the name and location of a road, town, river, lake or mountain, the width of watercourses or the height of relief on the landscape. width of watercourses or the height of relief on the landscape."

IPPT20151029, CJEU, Freistaat Bayern v Verlag Esterbauer

C-490/14 - ECLI:EU:C:2015:735