Law on Copyright and Related Rights, Rights of Makers of Databases

Article 139(1) gives the maker of a database who proves a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents the right to prohibit extraction or reuse of the whole contents or of a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial part. Extraction means the permanent or temporary transfer of all or a substantial part of the contents to another medium by any means or in any form.

Reuse means making all or a substantial part of the contents available to the public by distributing copies, renting, online transmission or other forms of transmission. Article 139(4) prohibits repeated and systematic extraction or reuse of insubstantial parts of the contents where that runs against the database's normal use or causes unreasonable harm to the maker's legitimate interests. The right applies whether or not the database or its contents qualify for copyright or other protection.

Under Article 143, the maker of a database made available to the public may not prevent a lawful user from extracting or reusing its qualitatively or quantitatively insubstantial parts. A lawful user may not, under Article 143, act in a way that conflicts with the database's normal exploitation and unreasonably prejudices the maker's legitimate interests. Contract terms that allow departures from those rules are void.

Article 144 lets a lawful user of a database made available to the public extract or reuse a substantial part without the maker's permission in listed cases, including a non-electronic database for private purposes, teaching or scientific research with the source named and a non-commercial purpose, and public security or administrative or judicial proceedings.

Article 144 also lets a research organization or cultural heritage institution extract or reuse under the conditions of Article 50a, and other persons under those of Article 50b. Article 50a permits a research organization or cultural heritage institution to copy works it lawfully accesses for text and data mining solely for scientific research.

Article 50b permits copying of lawfully accessible works solely for text and data mining unless the rightholder has expressly reserved that use in an appropriate way. For works made available to the public online, that reservation must be made by machine-readable means. Article 52's private-use reproduction exception expressly excludes electronic databases from its own scope.

Protection lasts from the day the database is made until 1 January of the year following the expiry of 15 years from that day. If the database is made available to the public within that period, protection lasts until 1 January of the year following the expiry of 15 years from its first publication. A substantial qualitative or quantitative change to the contents that results in a new investment starts a new 15-year term.

Article 145a extends the right to databases whose makers or rightholders are Montenegrin nationals or residents, or companies established under Montenegrin law with their registered seat or main place of business in Montenegro. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of Article 145a extend it to databases whose makers or rightholders are nationals or residents of, or companies established in, a European Union Member State.

Under Article 206d, Article 145a(4) to (6) applies only from the day Montenegro accedes to the European Union. Article 145b applies to the rights of database makers, with the necessary changes, the Act's provisions on protection of rights, foreign elements and supervision, among others. Law 53/2016 was published in the Official Gazette of Montenegro on 11 August 2016. Under its Article 38, it enters into force on the eighth day from the day of its publication. It replaced Article 139 with the text now in force. It also added Article 145a after Article 145.