The secret that gives the record its price
Is company data a trade secret? What the US and UK laws say
Updated
Much of what makes an enterprise record worth licensing is that nobody outside the company has it, which is exactly what trade secret law protects, and only while it stays secret.
Ask about my company's record 4 of the 8 vendors we read leave title to the data with the customer. Tell us which systems hold yours and what stage the company is at, and a person will reply about your own case.
The US test
Under 18 U.S.C. 1839 information is a trade secret when its owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret and it derives independent economic value from not being generally known. Section 1836 lets the owner of a misappropriated trade secret bring a civil action.
Source: Enterprise data sale rules
The UK test
Regulation 2 of the Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 asks whether the information is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and was the subject of reasonable steps to keep it so. Regulation 3 makes acquisition, use or disclosure unlawful where it is a breach of confidence.
Source: Enterprise data sale rules
Why it shapes the licence
A licence that hands the record over with no confidentiality terms can weaken the very protection that made it valuable, so licences of this kind are usually written with limits on onward use. In the UK a database right can sit alongside, where there was substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents.
Elsewhere on this site
The full register of rules is on the enterprise data sale rules dataset.