On January 13, 2026, another event took place as part of the lecture series "Automated Systems" in a hybrid format. The Chair for Civil Law, European and International Economic Law (Prof. Dr. Buck-Heeb) together with the Interdisciplinary Institute for Automated Systems e.V. (RifaS) had invited to this event.
This time, Prof. Heinz-Uwe Dettling could be gained. Mr. Dettling is the founder of the Prof. Dettling Law Firm in Stuttgart. He has been advising and representing companies in healthcare law (pharmaceutical law, hospital law, medical law) including related digital law for over 30 years. Until 2024, he led the Life Science Law Team at Ernst & Young Law GmbH, Stuttgart. Since 2019, he has been an honorary professor at the University of Hohenheim with lectures on health economic law, AI law, and digital law.
The lecture dealt with data ownership and the interplay with data economy and data law. In this regard, data is now considered the most important "asset" of the information age.
The speaker began his lecture with the initial thesis that the discussion about ownership of data is not yet concluded. He initially addressed the economic system concept as well as intellectual property law concepts. Gaps in protection result on the one hand from weaknesses of intellectual property law and on the other hand from contract law. Copyright, for example, does not protect the objective-descriptive knowledge content, but only the design of the presentation.
Subsequently, the preliminary question of what is to be understood by the term data was addressed. There is disagreement on this. For example, different definitions differ in that some are independent of form, while others require a digital representation or machine readability. The speaker prefers the understanding as factual data, i.e., the documentation of facts.
Mr. Dettling further dealt with study data as valuable research and proof data. He outlined the effort and the risks involved in obtaining study data as factual data and specified the circumstance that study data is considered a valuable data treasure. This was specified in terms of data ownership in pharmaceutical law. He also commented on proposals to establish intellectual property for valuable individual data sets (factual data) as well as ownership of medical records.
An overall concept of data ownership was introduced, derived from regulatory approaches in the field of pharmaceutical study data, from the law of photographic works, patient records, and trade and business secrets, and demanded by the pharmaceutical association in the course of the Health Data Utilization Act (GDNG) issuance.
This was followed by a lively discussion with questions about the lecture, emphasizing the thesis made by the speaker at the beginning "the discussion about ownership of data is not yet concluded". The event was moderated by Prof. Dr. Jan Eichelberger, LL.M.oec. from the Institute for Legal Informatics (IRI).
About the Lecture Series "Automated Systems"
Further information about the lecture series "Automated Systems" as well as other retrospectives on past events can be found here.
About the Interdisciplinary Institute for Automated Systems e.V. (RifaS)
The institute was founded in the fall of 2017 and stands for interdisciplinary, national, and international research in various areas of automated systems. The research areas can be divided into traffic and mobility, production and economy, as well as medicine. The institute brings together both scientists and practitioners and is active not only in research but also in teaching.
Information on current events can always be found at www.rifas.de.
