Cases C-203/02 The British Horseracing Board Ltd and Others v. William Hill Organization Ltd, C-46/02 Fixtures Marketing Ltd v. Oy Veikkaus AB, C-338/02 Fixtures Marketing Ltd v. Svenska Spel AB, and C-444/02 Fixtures Marketing Ltd v. Organismos Prognostikon Agonon Podosfairou (OPAP), judgments of 9 November 2004, nyr

Publishers Abstract:
The ECJ judgments in William Hill and the three Fixtures cases go to the heart of IP policy: in deciding whether to adopt an expansive or restrictive interpretation of the 1996 Database Directive, the Court had to basically answer the question of just how much IP protection is necessary to a well-functioning economy in a democratic society, i.e. how to strike the right balance between protecting investment in databases and ensuring that information flows remain relatively unimpeded. This case note sets out the background of the legal issues before the Court - the 1996 Database Directive - and attempts to identify and explain the crucial points in the Court's reasoning.