database
database. A compilation of information arranged in a systematic way and offering a means of finding specific elements it contains, often today by electronic means. • Unless the information itself is original, a database is not protected by U.S. copyright law. Elsewhere, it may be protected as a distinct class of “literary works,” or it may be the subject of sui generis intellectual-property laws. See SWEAT-OF-THE-BROW DOCTRINE. [Cases: Copyrights and Intellectual Property 12(3).]