I remember a German or European court ruling that states that as soon as a measurable effort is needed to collect the data it might be protected by copyright--c

I remember a German or European court ruling that states that as soon as a measurable effort is needed to collect the data it might be protected by copyright--could even be the effort to create a management or collection software. At least, I think that was the case but I might be mistaken. Also, I do not remember what kind of data collection this related to in the first place.