A new (intellectual) property right for non-personal data? An economic analysis

The discussion about appropriate legal rules for the digital economy has raised the question of the ownership of non-personal data, e.g. in the context of value networks of firms, smart manufacturing and connected cars. The article analyzes from an economic perspective whether there is a need for a new exclusive IPR on data. It is shown that there are no convincing economic arguments for the in-troduction of such a new IPR, especially due to the lack of an incentive problem for the production and analysis of data. On the contrary, a new IPR on data might lead to considerable problems and dangers for competition and innovation, especially for the digital economy, which depends on the access to a broad variety of data. Therefore problems of access to data might be a much more im-portant policy issue than exclusive property rights on data.