Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Copyrighting a Database

Do a Google search on "PROMIS".

Re: Copyrighting a Database

According to Circular 65 - Copyright Registration for Automated Databases published at www.copyright.gov/circs/circ65.html databases are defined for purposes of copyright as follows:

An automated database is a body of facts, data, or other information assembled into an organized format suitable for use in a computer and comprising one or more files.

The copyright law does not specifically enumerate databases as copyrightable subject matter, but the legislative history indicates that Congress considered computer databases and compilations of data as �literary works� subject to copyright protection. Databases may be considered copyrightable as a form of compilation, which is defined in the law as a work �formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.�

If you follow the instructions contained in Circular 65 you can register your copyright in the database. From the information you provided I sense there may be an issue as to whether you or the school own it. The answer to that question is a factual one including factors such as the Intellectual Property policies at your school, the degree to which your development of this database was created within the scope of your employment, whether school resources where used in its development, etc. Keep in mind that Educators unlike other employees have traditionally owned the copyrights, and not the schools, in any teaching materials prepared for the class room. From your job title �campus monitor�, it is unclear whether your job would benefit from the educator exception if the database were factually otherwise within the scope of your employment. Keep in mind also, with the wide spread application of distance learning a number of schools have created IP policies in which the school and not the educator retains ownership of any software. Again check your school�s IP policy and consider reviewing the specifics of your case with an IP attorney.

In addition, you should consider whether your database or the educational techniques associated with the database are patentable. Copyright protects the expression or arrangement of information while patent laws protect the underlying idea. Also keep in mind that any US patent must be applied for within one year of any public use, public disclosure, sale or offer for sale of the invention. Failure to apply within the one-year period results in a donation of the patent rights to the public. Unlike the one-year rule in the US, many other countries require that the patent be applied for before any public use of the invention. If you apply for a copyright in the database without identifying it as containing trade secret material, the registration of the copyright may start the one-year time bar.

Hope this helps,

Don