SEMI-CONDUCTORS

Topographies of semiconductor products may be protected under the Law on the Legal Protection of Topographies of Semiconductor Products of 2004 (in force as from 22 April 2004).

A topography may be protected provided that it is the result of the creator’s own intellectual effort, and that it is not commonplace in the semiconductor industry. If a topography consists of elements being commonplace in the semiconductor industry, it can be protected only in so far as the combination of such elements taken as a whole satisfies the conditions mentioned in the preceding sentence. The protection applies only to the topography as such, and not to any concept, process, system, technique or encoded information embodied therein.

The exclusive right to a topography is constituted by its being fixed or encoded for the first time, no registration being required or even provided for. The exclusive right will expire ten years from the end of the calendar year in which the topography was first commercially exploited anywhere in the world or, if it has not been so exploited within 15 years of the date on which it was first fixed or encoded, 15 years from that date.