Original Article en3 Health Records as an Object of Czech Personal Data Protection and Intellectual Property Law Otto Dostál 1 , Milan Šárek 2 1 First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic 2 CESNET z.s.p.o., Prague, Czech Republic Abstract Objectives: The handling of health records is closely tied with in the last years very much discussed topic of personal data protection. It is still possible to encounter fears if the legal regulation of personal data protection allows some of these deployments and in which way. Less often, but still, it is possible to encounter concerns also regarding possible intellectual property claims. In the light of these questions the authors decided to do an analysis of the existing legal framework. Methods: It this article we analyse the relevant content of Czech Personal Data Protection Act (though as this area is already highly harmonized by EU directives, the demonstrated principles can be applied more generally, not only in the context of the specific country). In similar way we analyse also the Czech Copyright Act. Results: When comparing both regulations we see that their principles and the subjects they concentrate on are largely different and the personal data protection is more prominent in our context, but the intellectual property re- gulation can also apply in some cases and complements the regulation. Legal frameworks we discussed here can be judged as developed and relatively mature. This appears to be the result of the harmonisation by EU directives and other supranational legislation. Conclusions: Legal regulation discussed in this article seems to be generally ready for development and deploy- ment of e-health services. This does not, however, meant, that the described regulation should not be a major con- cern of health care providers. Quite the opposite. The data Protection Act prescribes critical obligations, such the adoption of measures preventing unauthorised access to personal data. Also for certain types of databases the intellectual property rights cannot be ignored. Keywords Health record, database, legal framework, personal data, intellectual property Correspondence to: Otto Dostál First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague Address: Kateřinská 32, 121 08 Prague 2, Czech Republic E–mail: ottodostal@gmail.com EJBI 2012; 8(5):3–8 recieved: August 16, 2012 accepted: September 26, 2012 published: November 22, 2012 1 Introduction The keeping of health records is closely tied with in the last years very much discussed topic of personal data protection. It is a critical aspect which is necessary to have in mind in the process of deploying various e-health applications and which still arouses various questions. It is still possible to encounter fears if the legal regulation of personal data protection allows some of these deployments and in which way. Less often, but still, it is possible to en- counter such questions also regarding possible intellectual property claims. The authors are dealing with this topic in the context of the Czech system of law. Nevertheless, as this area is already highly harmonized by EU directives, the demon- strated principles can be applied more generally, not only in the context of the specific country. The goal of this article is to provide a review of the legal framework in this area and of obligations prescribed by it, to identify possible issues and to help understood its role in the regulation of health records and other medical data. 2 Personal Data Protection The Act n. 101/2000 Sb. on the Protection of Personal Data (hereinafter referred only as “Personal Data Protec- tion Act” or “Act“) [1] is a reflection of the article 10 sub- article, 3 of the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms [2] according to which “Everyone has the c 2012 EuroMISE s.r.o. EJBI – Volume 8 (2012), Issue 5