BIZCHINA / Intellectual property
Regulations on the Protection of Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits
Updated: 2006-04-17 14:35
(Adopted at the 36th Executive Meeting of the State Council on March 28,
2001, promulgated by Decree No. 300 of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China on April 2001, and effective as of the date of October
1, 2001)
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1. These Regulations are formulated in order to protect the
exclusive right of layout-design of integrated circuits, to encourage
innovation of integrated circuits technology and to promote the
development of science and technology.
Article 2. For the purposes of these Regulations:
(1) "integrated circuit" means semiconductor integrated circuit,
that is, a product, in its intermediate or final form, which uses
semiconductor material as its chip, in and/or on which two or more
elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or all of
the interconnections are integrally formed and which is intended to
perform a certain electronic function;
(2) "layout-design of integrated circuit"(hereinafter referred to
as layout-design) means the three-dimensional disposition of the two or
more elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or
all of the interconnections of an integrated circuit, or such a
three-dimensional disposition prepared for the manufacture of an
integrated circuit;
(3) "holder of the right of layout-design" means the natural
person, the legal person or any other organization that, according to
these Regulations, is entitled to the exclusive right of a layout-design;
(4) "reproduction" means the act of reproducing a layout-design or
of reproducing an integrated circuit incorporating the layout-design;
(5) "commercial exploitation" means the act of importing, selling
or otherwise distributing for commercial purposes a protected
layout-design, or an integrated circuit incorporating such a
layout-design, or an article incorporating such an integrated circuit.
Article 3. Any layout-design created by a Chinese natural person, legal
person or other organization shall be eligible for the exclusive right of
layout-design in accordance with these Regulations.
Any layout-design created by a foreigner shall, where it is first
commercially exploited in the territory of the People's Republic of
China, be eligible for the exclusive right of layout-design in accordance
with these Regulations.
Any layout-design created by a foreigner shall be eligible for the
exclusive right of layout-design in accordance with these Regulations, if
the country to which the foreigner belongs has concluded an agreement
with China to protect layout-designs or both the country to which the
foreigner belongs and China are party to an international treaty
concerning the protection of layout-designs.
Article 4. Any layout-design which is to be protected shall be original
in the sense that the layout-design is the result of the creator's own
intellectual effort, and it is not commonplace among creators of
layout-designs and manufacturers of integrated circuits at the time of
its creation.
Where a layout-design which is to be protected consists of several
commonplace layout-designs, the combination of these layout-designs taken
as a whole shall be in compliance with the requirements referred to in
the preceding paragraph.
Article 5. The protection of layout-designs under these Regulations
shall not extend to ideas, procedures, methods of operations or
mathematical concepts as such.
Article 6. The intellectual property administration department of the
State Council is responsible for the relevant administrative work
concerning the exclusive right of layout-design in accordance with these
Regulations.
Chapter II Exclusive Right of Layout-design
Article 7. The holder of the right of layout-design shall enjoy the
following exclusive right:
(1) reproducing a protected layout-design in its entirety or any part
thereof that complies with the requirement of originality;
(2) commercially exploiting a protected layout-design, an integrated
circuit incorporating a protected layout-design, or an article
incorporating such an integrated circuit.
Article 8. The exclusive right of layout-design is acquired after its
being registered with the intellectual property administration department
of the State Council.
Any unregistered layout-design shall not be protected under these
Regulations.
Article 9. The exclusive right of layout-design shall belong to its
creator, except as otherwise prescribed in these Regulations.
Where a layout-design is created according to the will and under the
charge of a legal person or other organization, which shall bear
responsibility for such layout-design, that legal person or other
organization shall be the creator.
Where a layout-design is created by a natural person, that person shall
be the creator.
Article 10. Where a layout-design is created jointly by two or more
natural persons, legal persons or other organizations, the ownership of
the exclusive right shall be agreed upon by the joint creators; in the
absence of such an agreement or where the agreement is not clear, the
exclusive right shall be owned jointly by the creators.
Article 11. Where a layout-design is created in execution of a
commission, the ownership of the exclusive right shall be agreed upon by
the person having commissioned and the person being commissioned; in the
absence of such an agreement or where the agreement is not clear, the
exclusive right shall be owned by the person being commissioned.
Article 12. The term of protection of the exclusive right of
layout-design shall be 10 years counted from the date of filing an
application for registration or from the date on which it was first
commercially exploited anywhere in the world, whichever expires earlier.
However, no matter whether it has been registered or commercially
exploited, a layout-design shall no longer be protected under these
Regulations 15 years after the date of the completion of its creation.
Article 13. Where the exclusive right of layout-design belongs to a
natural person, the exclusive right shall, after the death of the natural
person and within the term of protection as prescribed in these
Regulations, be transferred in accordance with the provisions of the
Succession Law.
Where the exclusive right of a layout-design belongs to a legal person or
other organization, the exclusive right shall, after the legal person or
other organization is reorganized or ceases to exist and within the term
of protection as prescribed in these Regulations, be owned by the legal
person or other organization which succeeds to its rights and
obligations; where there is no such legal person or other organization to
succeed to its rights and obligations, the layout-design shall enter into
the public domain.
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