(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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