Data Governance and Intellectual Property Governance in Common European Data Spaces – DGIP-CEDS

Research objectives

DGIP-CEDS aims to map, analyse and further develop legal definitions, rights and obligations, structures, procedures and related mechanisms to support the conceptualisation and operationalisation of (potentially recurring) data governance and related intellectual property (IP) governance issues in Common European Data Spaces. The specific research objectives (and corresponding work packages) are:

• to map legal sources, principles, requirements and data space configurations which may define data governance and IP governance in Common European Data Spaces;
• to analyse the legal operationalisation of data governance and IP governance requirements in the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) (by focusing on the national implementation of the EHDS by public sector bodies in Croatia and on the rights/obligations and interests of various health stakeholders);
• to develop legal solutions to support the conceptualisation of data governance and IP governance requirements in other Common European Data Spaces (by considering developments in the energy, industrial-manufacturing, and smart city and communities data spaces and the rights/obligations and interests of relevant stakeholders).

In principle, the data governance and IP governance aspects of a Common European Data Space concern the development of a framework that outlines clear roles, rights and duties, procedures and mechanisms, infrastructure, standards and other relevant measures to ensure the effective protection of data, respect for fundamental and acquired rights and legitimate interests, while facilitating openness to data sharing and data reuse for the purpose of creating shared value among relevant stakeholders. Accordingly, DGIP-CEDS focuses on the following legal problems in Common European Data Spaces and their (cross-)sectoral implications:

How to allocate responsibilities and enforcement powers: (i) in a peer-to-peer data space; (ii) in a single data space coordinated by a data space governance authority with an extensive or limited role; or (iii) in a federated data space;

1. Scope, definitions and functional roles
   • How to define data products and related concepts?How to delimit personal data (special categories of personal data) and non-personal data in scope?
   • How to include privately-held data and data held by public sector bodies?
   • How to designate or determine data holders / providers, data users / consumers, data subjects, third-party rights holders, service providers / enablers, other participants, data space governance authorities and supervisory authorities?
2. Interaction with other legislations
   • How to ensure consistency with the cross-sectoral EU digital legislative frameworks?
   • How to permit connection of data from different Common European Data Spaces?
3. Rights and duties of actors in various data space configurations
   • What types of legal organisational forms and governance frameworks are permitted for the establishment of data spaces?
   • How to allocate responsibilities and enforcement powers: (i) in a peer-to-peer data space; (ii) in a single data space coordinated by a data space governance authority with an extensive or limited role; or (iii) in a federated data space?
4. Facilitating the sharing of ‘FAIR’ (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) data sets and the potential effect of data sharing on the ‘fair’ balancing of fundamental rights, acquired rights and legitimate interests
   • How data-sharing obligations may simultaneously affect respect for privacy, protection of personal data, consumer protection, the right to property, freedom to conduct business etc.?
5. Determining ‘fair’ conditions under which data users may access data
   • Mandating vs incentivising data sharing
   • Purposes of use and prohibited use purposes
   • Data permitsInstitutional, data sharing and service agreements
   • Model contractual terms and ‘unfair’ contractual terms
   • Anonymisation, pseudonymisation and synthetic data
   • Natural persons’ right to object
   • Accountability and liability
   • Principles for the calculation of ‘fair’ fees
6. ‘Fair’ IP governance
   • Should the data holder or other rights holder have a right to refuse data sharing on specific grounds?
   • ‘Fair’, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing and non-disclosure agreements available for cases when data sets subject to IP rights and/or trade secrets are made available
7. ‘Fair’ conditions for international data transfers
   • Necessity for data localisation requirements vs considerations to facilitate international data flows, and the principle of reciprocity