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Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

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contrary, U.S. database producers would arguably be entitled toprecisely the same protection in Europe that they would be (and infact currently are) entitled to in the United States. This is sobecause Article 10bis <strong>of</strong> the Paris Convention states that membercountries <strong>of</strong> the Paris Union are bound to assure nationals <strong>of</strong> suchcountries effective protection against unfair competition, and goeson to state that any act <strong>of</strong> competition contrary to honest practicesin industrial or commercial matters constitutes an act <strong>of</strong> unfaircompetition.184 Given that the EU has now mandated sui generisprotection for database contents even against non-competitiveextractions and re-utilizations, European countries can hardlyargue that wholesale duplication <strong>of</strong> database contents in order tocompete with the database producer is not an act <strong>of</strong> unfaircompetition within the meaning <strong>of</strong> Article 10bis <strong>of</strong> the ParisConvention.Thus, the argument that enactment <strong>of</strong> sui generis protection<strong>of</strong> the sort spelled out in H.R. 354 is necessary (or sufficient) forU.S. database producers to obtain protection for their databases inthe EU is suspect. As we have also seen, it is not clear thatpassage <strong>of</strong> H.R. 354 will be deemed sufficiently comparable toqualify U.S. database producers for the (arguably over-broad) suigeneris protection now available in Europe. Indeed, one featurethat H.R. 354 and H.R. 1858 have in common distinguishes bothbills from the type <strong>of</strong> protection mandated by the EU Directive,and further undermines the argument that either bill wouldprovide comparable protection. This feature concerns theenforceability <strong>of</strong> contracts that put additional restrictions on theuse <strong>of</strong> database contents.3. Contractual CircumventionWhile the two U.S. bills provide two different approaches tothe protection <strong>of</strong> database contents, both bills make it clear thatnothing in the legislation would preempt contracts that placeadditional restrictions on the use <strong>of</strong> a database. H.R. 354 isparticularly adamant in this regard. Section 1405(a) <strong>of</strong> H.R. 354states that nothing in this bill “shall affect rights . . . orobligations relating to information, including . . . the law <strong>of</strong>184. Paris Convention for the Protection <strong>of</strong> Industrial Property, Mar. 20, 1883, 13U.S.T. 2, 828 U.N.T.S. 107, as last revised at the Stockholm Revision Conference, July14, 1967, 21 U.S.T. 1538, 828 U.N.T.S. 303, art. 10bis.

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