SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS LAYOUT DESIGN
The semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout Design Act, 2000, provides protection for semiconductor IC layout designs. SICLD Act is a sui-generis (one of its kind) specifically meant for protecting IPR relating to Layout-Design (Topographies) of Semiconductor Integrated Circuit.
The subject of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout Design has two parts, namely:
- Semiconductor Integrated Circuit
Semiconductor Integrated Circuit means a product having transistors and other circuitry elements, which are inseparably formed on a semiconductor material or an insulating material or inside the semiconductor material and designed to perform an electronic circuitry function. - Layout-design
The layout-design of a semiconductor integrated circuit means a layout of transistors and other circuitry elements and includes lead wires connecting such elements and expressed in any manner in semiconductor integrated circuits.
Criteria for Registration of a Chip Layout Design
- Original,
- Distinctive and
- Capable of distinguishing from any other lay-out design.
Note: " Only the Layout-Design " - which essentially is the mask layout- floor planning of the integrated circuits can be registered under the SICLD Act 2000 and not the other information like any idea, procedure, process, system, programme stored in the integrated circuit, method of operation etc.
Layout-designs are prohibited from registration under the Act if they are as follows:
- Not original;
- Have been commercially exploited anywhere in India or in a Convention country i.e. any country that the Government of India notifies in the Official Gazette for the fulfillment of a treaty, convention or an arrangement with any country outside India and which affords to citizens of India similar privileges as are granted to its own citizens;
- Not inherently distinctive;
- Not inherently capable of being distinguishable from any other registered layout-design.
Term of protection: This registration is valid for a term of ten years from the date of filing an application for registration or from the date of first commercial exploitation anywhere in the world, whichever is earlier.
Location: Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Registry of India is currently located in New Delhi, and comes under the purview of DIT, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
For more information on SICLD please visit
http://www.mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=317
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit_layout_design_protection
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/washington/trtdocs_wo011.html