LAW FIRM FOR DATA PROJECTS
The law firm advises and represents companies in the area of the just emerging EU data law:
Database Project
Setting up and protecting databases are fundamental data projects. The firm advises on property rights in data, such as ownership rights or rights of use. In Germany, database rights are codified in the German Copyright Act. On the one hand, the German Copyright Act defines sui generis protection. On the other hand, in individual cases databases can also be protected as copyrights. These property rights can be asserted in particular in the event of infringements of database rights. This primarily involves claims for injunctive relief and damages. Often there are parallel or alternative infringements of trade secrets.
Access to Data Project
For small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, the availability of data will be crucial to future economic success. This is obvious for companies whose business model is based on data, for example in the Internet of Things (“IoT”) sector. For all other companies, however, this also applies – at least at second glance.
By their very nature, SMEs are in most cases clearly inferior to large companies and especially to the market leaders in the Internet sector when it comes to data collection. Here, however, the law can provide a balance. Traditionally, antitrust law can be used in certain constellations to enforce a claim to access and use data from other companies. However, the new regulations of EU law, above all those of the EU Data Act, will clearly go beyond this. The question of which data must be shared to what extent and under what conditions will in all likelihood be decisive for many companies. Legal support is indispensable for the enforcement of such claims.
The EU Data Act is also expected to grant users, i.e., the “suppliers” of data, access and information rights with regard to the data generated by them. This applies to both individuals and companies. And, unlike data protection law, it also affects non-personal data. For the data processor, this results in (further) obligations; for the user, it can result in economic opportunities.
Data License Project
Data licenses contractually grant rights of use to data or databases. The law firm advises on the drafting of contracts as far as German and EU law is concerned. When drafting and negotiating license agreements, the new rules at EU level must be taken into account in particular. These set limits on the drafting of contractual terms and conditions, but also regulate areas such as liability law. In all likelihood, the Data Act in particular will tend to improve the legal framework for small and medium-sized enterprises through mandatory regulations. The law firm also advises and/or represents the contracting parties in cases of default or breach of contract. As is always the case with licensing law, antitrust law must be taken into account. Antitrust law sets limits to license agreements.
Data Transfer Project
Today, the use of cloud services for companies is a matter of course. Less self-evident is a smooth switch from one cloud provider to another, i.e. the data transfer. But there are also increasingly helpful legal regulations for data portability and data portability in German and the EU. The proposal of the EU Data Act, for example, provides for simplification of provider switching. This applies both to the legal possibility of switching and to data portability.