A. Introduction
Today, the importance of information as an asset is increasing due to the evolution of digital network technology and its widespread use in business. The increase in the number of work-from-home situations triggered by the pandemic has also made the value of information for individuals even greater. In particular, among the different types of information, the group of data known as "big data" is becoming a source of value for companies given the remarkable development of IoT, the means of collecting data, and AI, which analyzes and utilizes such data.
The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the legal protection of big data in Japan in light of the increasing value thereof for international use. This article will first discuss the definition and key characteristics of big data, followed by a description of the two types of legal protection thereof in Japan under the Copyright Act and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
As for the protection under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, a draft revision of its related guidelines was published on March 23, 2022, and the latest discussions thereon will be presented in this article.
B. Definition and Key Characteristics of Big Data
While the term "big data" has come to be used in everyday conversation, there is no clear, universal definition thereof. Big data, stated abstractly, refers to a huge group of data composed of various types and formats of data, including unstructured data. Notably, Gartner, Inc., a major U.S. IT research firm, defines big data as having the following "Three Vs" as its key characteristics:
Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.
In its "White Paper on Information and Communications (2017 edition)," the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications classifies big data into the following four categories, focusing on the entities that generate the data:
1. "Open data" provided by national and local governments;
2. Digitalizing and structuralizing knowhow;
3. M2M (Machine to Machine) streaming data; and
4. "Personal data" involving attributes.
With reference to the above categories, in this article, big data will be defined as the data generated by governments, companies or individuals that are difficult to manage with ordinary software because of their high-volume, high-velocity or high-variety.
C. Legal Protection of Big Data in Japan
1. Two types of protection
There are two ways to legally protect big data in Japan. First is the method of protecting data as if it were a physical object by giving it the effects of ownership. This is called the rights-granting type of protection. In contrast, the second way to protect data is by regulating the conduct related to such data rather than protecting the data itself by creating rights to it. This is called the rule-of-conduct type of protection.
In Japan, the Copyright Act protects data by granting copyrights to databases as a form of the rights-granting type of protection. In addition, the Unfair Competition Prevention Act regulates unfair acts related to certain data called “shared data with limited access” as a rule-of-conduct type of protection...
Please visit https://www.ohebashi.com/jp/newsletter/NL_en_2022summer-202206_Teshirogi.pdf to read the whole article.
Oh-Ebashi LPC & Partners