6.2 Features of Providing Intellectual Property Rights …
523
Analysis of Violations and Reverse-Engineering Protection [3]
In general, the law clearly contains certain legal grounds for protection from claims
in the field of reverse engineering. For example, Section 906(a) of the Act indicates
that the following sections are not violations:
(1) An attempt by a person to reproduce an industrial design solely for the purpose
of training, analysis, or assessment of concepts or technologies contained in the
industrial design or circuitry, logical structure, or organization of components
used in an industrial design;
(2) Performance by a person of the analysis or assessment described in clause 1
and the use of the results of such analysis (assessment) in an original industrial
design produced for distribution.
The provision “On the protection of reproduction” was added to the Act because
of the established “tradition” of supplying one type of product from several suppliers
in the semiconductor industry. The situation with parallel supplies occurs when the
microcircuit buyer asks two different suppliers to supply a specific type of microcircuits. This process is beneficial for the industry, especially in cases where the
first source due to any case loses the ability or refuses to produce circuits that are
critical for the buyer; this is extremely important for microcircuits used in the field
of national defense, including, first of all, military and spacecraft devices.
Reproduction is beneficial regardless of parallel supplies, since it ensures development of technologies in the field of production of integrated circuits due to providing
the competitors with the possibility to improve themselves using the existing integrated circuits. However, where there is benefit from reproduction, there are also
expenses associated with protection of reproduction. The existence of the protection
of reproduction enhances the need to separate piracy from legal reproduction.
The text of Section 906(a) of the Act will leave any experienced lawyer with the
expression that a pirate can use the protection of reproduction as a smoke screen.
According to the section, the pirate who introduces small changes or modifications
in an illegally modified industrial design or copies an industrial design will not fully
escape liability in accordance with the provision on the protection of reproduction,
as the copied microcircuit will be considered original.
Provisions on International Bilateral Protection [3]
Sections 902 and 914 of the Act led to the development of an international regime
for the protection of semiconductor chips and topologies of integrated circuits. For
example, Section 902 is the provision on the principle of reciprocity, which grants
protection to electrical circuits and microcircuits manufactured abroad only if the
manufacturing country provides similar protection with regard to US-made microcircuits. Section 914 is a transitional provision, which allows the US Minister of
Commerce to grant protection to other countries making efforts and reasonable
progress toward adopting such laws on protection of industrial designs or integrated
microcircuit topologies.
According to Section 902(a)(1), any industrial design fixed in a semiconductor
chip is subject to legal protection in accordance with the Act if
523
Analysis of Violations and Reverse-Engineering Protection [3]
In general, the law clearly contains certain legal grounds for protection from claims
in the field of reverse engineering. For example, Section 906(a) of the Act indicates
that the following sections are not violations:
(1) An attempt by a person to reproduce an industrial design solely for the purpose
of training, analysis, or assessment of concepts or technologies contained in the
industrial design or circuitry, logical structure, or organization of components
used in an industrial design;
(2) Performance by a person of the analysis or assessment described in clause 1
and the use of the results of such analysis (assessment) in an original industrial
design produced for distribution.
The provision “On the protection of reproduction” was added to the Act because
of the established “tradition” of supplying one type of product from several suppliers
in the semiconductor industry. The situation with parallel supplies occurs when the
microcircuit buyer asks two different suppliers to supply a specific type of microcircuits. This process is beneficial for the industry, especially in cases where the
first source due to any case loses the ability or refuses to produce circuits that are
critical for the buyer; this is extremely important for microcircuits used in the field
of national defense, including, first of all, military and spacecraft devices.
Reproduction is beneficial regardless of parallel supplies, since it ensures development of technologies in the field of production of integrated circuits due to providing
the competitors with the possibility to improve themselves using the existing integrated circuits. However, where there is benefit from reproduction, there are also
expenses associated with protection of reproduction. The existence of the protection
of reproduction enhances the need to separate piracy from legal reproduction.
The text of Section 906(a) of the Act will leave any experienced lawyer with the
expression that a pirate can use the protection of reproduction as a smoke screen.
According to the section, the pirate who introduces small changes or modifications
in an illegally modified industrial design or copies an industrial design will not fully
escape liability in accordance with the provision on the protection of reproduction,
as the copied microcircuit will be considered original.
Provisions on International Bilateral Protection [3]
Sections 902 and 914 of the Act led to the development of an international regime
for the protection of semiconductor chips and topologies of integrated circuits. For
example, Section 902 is the provision on the principle of reciprocity, which grants
protection to electrical circuits and microcircuits manufactured abroad only if the
manufacturing country provides similar protection with regard to US-made microcircuits. Section 914 is a transitional provision, which allows the US Minister of
Commerce to grant protection to other countries making efforts and reasonable
progress toward adopting such laws on protection of industrial designs or integrated
microcircuit topologies.
According to Section 902(a)(1), any industrial design fixed in a semiconductor
chip is subject to legal protection in accordance with the Act if