Sweat of One's Brow Does Not Entitle a Work of Compilation to Copyright

A recent High Court decision issued on May 19, 2006 indicates that the sweat of the brow will not give rise to copyright protection for a work of compilation. The court explains that for a work of compilation to be protected as a copyrighted work, there must be a certain level of originality in both the selection and arrangement of the data in the work. In this particular case, the court states that because the data collected by the plaintiff in the case of precious stones is fact-based data and such data is available in many different sources. Upon examination it is difficult to be convinced that plaintiff's work has reached the required level of originality. The court concludes that there is no copyright violation.