520
6 Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
countries aimed at legal protection of integrated circuits all over the world. For the
first time ever since the moment of invention of a semiconductor chip, manufacturers finally received certain legal protection in the field of intellectual property of
designed microcircuits in most developed countries.
The need for such special legal form of protection of microcircuits emerged mainly
due to manifestation of piracy in the field of microcircuits, which threatened the
viability of the developing microcircuit industry. Pirates were able to “develop”
microcircuits within shorter terms and sell identical microcircuits at lower prices
than companies actually developing these microcircuits. This forced all companies
involved in microcircuit research and development to reduce prices in order to ensure
competitiveness with these pirate microcircuits, due to which most of those companies started losing funds required for further studies and development for creation of
a new generation of chips. These companies had no proper level of legal protection in
accordance with previous US laws on patents, copyrights or trade secrets; therefore,
the US Congress provided them with the so-called form of protection.
Due to the need to create a special form of protection of integrated microcircuits,
after active lobbying by the semiconductor industry, the US congress adopted the
Semiconductor Chip Protection Act in 1984. Since the US Act was the first law (legal
precedent) ensuring special form of protection in the field of integrated circuits, the
Congress had no original law that could be used as a model or a reference. Let us
present here the result of analysis of the basic provisions of this law examined in one
of the best works [3] dedicated to this complex subject.
General Provisions of the Act
The Act provides the owner of an industrial design with the right to reproduce this
design, import or distribute semiconductor chips containing this industrial design, as
well as delegate the rights to perform the above actions to another party for a term of up
to ten years. The Act also contains the first clause on trade, which allows importing,
distributing, or using a microcircuit, but prohibits reproducing a microcircuit that
was created by the owner of an industrial design. In other words, any person can
resell microcircuits purchased from the manufacturer without emergence of legal
liabilities, but cannot copy such microcircuits.
Protection under the Act begins from the moment of registration of an industrial
design in The United States Copyright Office or its commercial use in any country of
the world, depending on which one of these events occurs first. An industrial design
becomes public property if it hasn’t been registered for two years since the first
instance of its commercial use. In other words, the owner of an industrial design who
has not registered this design immediately can do it during the subsequent two years
if such owner is going to file claims of violation of rights in the future. It is extremely
important to register an industrial design, since registration of a microcircuit is the
condition for protection of the design by means of copyright. This indicates that
registration is also a condition for filing a claim on violation of rights under the law
and serves as proof of the facts indicated in the certificate, as well as the applicant’s
compliance with the legal requirements.
6 Reverse Engineering of Microcircuits
countries aimed at legal protection of integrated circuits all over the world. For the
first time ever since the moment of invention of a semiconductor chip, manufacturers finally received certain legal protection in the field of intellectual property of
designed microcircuits in most developed countries.
The need for such special legal form of protection of microcircuits emerged mainly
due to manifestation of piracy in the field of microcircuits, which threatened the
viability of the developing microcircuit industry. Pirates were able to “develop”
microcircuits within shorter terms and sell identical microcircuits at lower prices
than companies actually developing these microcircuits. This forced all companies
involved in microcircuit research and development to reduce prices in order to ensure
competitiveness with these pirate microcircuits, due to which most of those companies started losing funds required for further studies and development for creation of
a new generation of chips. These companies had no proper level of legal protection in
accordance with previous US laws on patents, copyrights or trade secrets; therefore,
the US Congress provided them with the so-called form of protection.
Due to the need to create a special form of protection of integrated microcircuits,
after active lobbying by the semiconductor industry, the US congress adopted the
Semiconductor Chip Protection Act in 1984. Since the US Act was the first law (legal
precedent) ensuring special form of protection in the field of integrated circuits, the
Congress had no original law that could be used as a model or a reference. Let us
present here the result of analysis of the basic provisions of this law examined in one
of the best works [3] dedicated to this complex subject.
General Provisions of the Act
The Act provides the owner of an industrial design with the right to reproduce this
design, import or distribute semiconductor chips containing this industrial design, as
well as delegate the rights to perform the above actions to another party for a term of up
to ten years. The Act also contains the first clause on trade, which allows importing,
distributing, or using a microcircuit, but prohibits reproducing a microcircuit that
was created by the owner of an industrial design. In other words, any person can
resell microcircuits purchased from the manufacturer without emergence of legal
liabilities, but cannot copy such microcircuits.
Protection under the Act begins from the moment of registration of an industrial
design in The United States Copyright Office or its commercial use in any country of
the world, depending on which one of these events occurs first. An industrial design
becomes public property if it hasn’t been registered for two years since the first
instance of its commercial use. In other words, the owner of an industrial design who
has not registered this design immediately can do it during the subsequent two years
if such owner is going to file claims of violation of rights in the future. It is extremely
important to register an industrial design, since registration of a microcircuit is the
condition for protection of the design by means of copyright. This indicates that
registration is also a condition for filing a claim on violation of rights under the law
and serves as proof of the facts indicated in the certificate, as well as the applicant’s
compliance with the legal requirements.