British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc & Others –v- Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Limited & Others [2011] EWHC 2662 (Ch)
BSkyB alleged that Digital Satellite had infringed its database rights by using substantial quantities of customer data that had been unlawfully be obtained from Sky's customer databases. Digital Satellite used the data to provide service plans for Sky equipment in competition with Sky's authorised provider. Sky claimed database rights in three main databases, its central customer database (known as Chordiant) and historic and current databases used to manage and control the activities of BSkyB's engineers. It claimed that it had invested over £250 million in the development of Chordiant and that it spent over £300 million annually in obtaining and verifying the customer details. It argued that this amounted to "a substantial investment in the obtaining, verification and presentation of the contents" of the databases (the test for database rights). Digital Satellite relied on the BHB decision and claimed that the investment relied on by Sky was investment in the creation of the contents of the Database (as opposed to obtaining or verifying the contents) and that there were no database rights in that in sort of investment.
The High Court (Arnold J) upheld BSkyB's contention. The BHB case was distinguished on the basis that the key information there (lists of horses in races etc) had been created by the BHB. Investment in creation of new information did not count for the purposes of the subsistence of database rights. By way of a contrast, here Sky did not create new information when it entered customer's data – it simply recorded pre-existing information in a systematic way.
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