Legal Provisions in India

The Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Layout-Design Act, 2000, protects original, inherently
distinctive layout-designs that have not been previously commercially exploited. Registration
is a necessary pre-requisite for protection.  The Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-
Design Act, 2000 gives recognition to a new form of intellectual property, namely, the
‘layout-designs’ used in semiconductor integrated circuits[i] as has been defined u/s 2(h) of
the Act.

Exchange of information on a worldwide basis now can occur instantaneously because it can
be stored so readily and in such quantities in semiconductor integrated circuits or chips as
they are commonly known, has far-reaching implications for privacy, international relations,
national security, and defense. Chips are often referred to as ‘the crude oil of the information
age’.

Background of the Semiconductor Act, 2000

The need for a sui generis form of protection developed primarily as a result of chip piracy,
which threatened to undercut the vitality of the semiconductor industry. Chip pirates could
sell identical chips for lower prices than could the companies that originally designed them.

This caused legitimate companies that engaged in chip research and development to cut
prices to compete with pirated chips, which deprived legitimate companies of the funds
needed to carry out further research and development to build the next generation of chips.
Legitimate companies could not get adequate chip protection under patent, copyright, or trade
secret law, so a sui generis form of protection was provided.

Protection to semiconductor chips was first given in the US through Semiconductor Chip
Protection Act (SCPA) in 1984 and its impact was felt virtually throughout the world. Japan
introduced similar protection in 1985, viz., Japanese Circuit Layout Right Act (JCLRA). An
EC Directive[ii], with implementing legislation in all Member States of the

EU accelerated international efforts resulting in the formulation of the 1989 Treaty on

Intellectual Property in respect of Integrated Circuits (IPIC Treaty) under the auspices of
WIPO. The IPIC Treaty was later made part of the TRIPS Agreement. TRIPS called for
adherence to most of the substantive provisions of the IPIC Treaty[iii]. As a member of
TRIPS Agreement, India has enacted the Semiconductor Integrated circuit layout-Design Act,
2000, but it has yet to come intoforce[iv]. The implementation of the Act comes under the
Ministry of Communication and InformationTechnology. A layout-design has to be
registered to receive protection under the Act.
semiconductor protection act

1. 1. Semiconductor ProtectionAct
2. 2. Not covered byHKUST Business School2Semiconductor Protections What protects Not
covered by copyright (why not?)patents (why not?) Highly Semiconductor Chip Protection
Act of 1984semiconductors then?  Creates “registered mask work”specialized
intellectual property form Copyright-like rights for 10First NEW IP right created in ~100
years years only
3. 3. HKUST Business School3Reverse Engineering Allowedfor semiconductor  Can copy the
command structures Can copy the functions of chipschips  Only restricts exact
duplicationCan have same inputs and outputs Prevention of photographic maskTarget is
chip piracy of exact copies Requires registration within two years ofcommercial
usagecopying
4. 4. Borrows from BOTHHKUST Business School4Chip Act: A Hybrid of Laws Like
copyright,patent and copyright tocreate a new hybrid laws Like“excludes any procedure,
process,system, or mode of operation” patent, requires non-obviousness in thatdesigns are
excluded that are Limited protect term,“stable,commonplace, or familiar” in industry
Notification required (circle of M for Mask)like patents (10 years)
5. 5. Chip Act alsoHKUST Business School5Covers more than Processors Exact Copyright
may also apply, but unclearprotects microcode in ROMs duplication of ROM protected,
butfunctional duplication of ROM not However, copyright MAY be able to providegreater
protectionsprotected than Chip Art, as can beextended to cover substantially similar
works Multiple forms ofPatent might, in some cases, also be granted protection MIGHT
apply
6. 6. ExclusiveHKUST Business School6Chip Act Rights and Exceptions 10 year right
canrights to reproduction, importation,and distribution Exclusionbegin up to two years
aftercommercial exploitation started Exclusion allows USE of chip mask to createafor
reverse engineering New chip mustnew and better chip when infringement isonly for
analysis be original enough to protect
 7. 7. ExclusiveHKUST Business School6Chip Act Rights and Exceptions 10 year right
canrights to reproduction, importation,and distribution Exclusionbegin up to two years
aftercommercial exploitation started Exclusion allows USE of chip mask to createafor
reverse engineering New chip mustnew and better chip when infringement isonly for
analysis be original enough to protect

history of semiconductors
Further information: Timeline of electrical and electronic engineering

The history of the understanding of semiconductors begins with experiments on the electrical
properties of materials. The properties of negative temperature coefficient of resistance,
rectification, and light-sensitivity were observed starting in the early 19th century.

Thomas Johann Seebeck was the first to notice an effect due to semiconductors, in 1821.[15] In
1833, Michael Faraday reported that the resistance of specimens of silver sulfide decreases
when they are heated. This is contrary to the behavior of metallic substances such as copper.
In 1839, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel reported observation of a voltage between a solid and
a liquid electrolyte when struck by light, the photovoltaic effect. In 1873 Willoughby Smith
observed that selenium resistors exhibit decreasing resistance when light falls on them. In
1874 Karl Ferdinand Braun observed conduction and rectification in metallic sulfides,
although this effect had been discovered much earlier by Peter Munck af Rosenschold (sv)
writing for the Annalen der Physik und Chemie in 1835,[16] and Arthur Schuster found that a
copper oxide layer on wires has rectification properties that ceases when the wires are
cleaned. William Grylls Adams and Richard Evans Day observed the photovoltaic effect in
selenium in 1876.[17]

A unified explanation of these phenomena required a theory of solid-state physics which

developed greatly in the first half of the 20th Century. In 1878 Edwin Herbert Hall
demonstrated the deflection of flowing charge carriers by an applied magnetic field, the Hall
effect. The discovery of the electron by J.J. Thomson in 1897 prompted theories of electron-
based conduction in solids. Karl Baedeker, by observing a Hall effect with the reverse sign to
that in metals, theorized that copper iodide had positive charge carriers. Johan Koenigsberger
classified solid materials as metals, insulators and "variable conductors" in 1914 although his
student Josef Weiss already introduced the term Halbleiter (semiconductor in modern
meaning) in PhD thesis in 1910.[18][19] Felix Bloch published a theory of the movement of
electrons through atomic lattices in 1928. In 1930, B. Gudden stated that conductivity in
semiconductors was due to minor concentrations of impurities. By 1931, the band theory of
conduction had been established by Alan Herries Wilson and the concept of band gaps had
been developed. Walter H. Schottky and Nevill Francis Mott developed models of the
potential barrier and of the characteristics of a metal–semiconductor junction. By 1938, Boris
Davydov had developed a theory of the copper-oxide rectifier, identifying the effect of the p–
n junction and the importance of minority carriers and surface states.[20]