Commercial data protection for an information technology based business afforded by prohibition of unfair competition
ENData is at the core of today’s digital businesses and it is even used as a competitive tool. Digital business, to a large measure, relies on screen scraping techniques which enable them to use others’ data or databases. For these purposes, they employ automated software that collects publicly available online data from others’ websites or databases. This data is then passed off as their own. This paper will explore what legal protection is available against the use of publicly accessible screen scraped commercial data within the instruments of intellectual property rights: protection of copyright and databases, sui generis rights. Subsequently, this paper will deal with the practicalities of prohibition of unfair competition in order to provide legal protection against the use of screen scraped publicly available online commercial data. [From the publication]
