Regulations for the Protection of Semi-conductor Topography

Chapter I: General Principles

1. The establishment of this law is an attempt to protect the proprietorship of the semi-conductor topography, to encourage the innovations of Integrated Circuit (IC) technology, and to prompt the development of science and technology.

2. The following are explanations for some terms used in this law:

　(1) Integrated Circuit (IC) refers to semi-conductive integrate circuit, which is a kind of finished or semi-finished product designed to carry out certain kind of electronic function by using semi-conductive materials as base piece and integrating at least two components (at least one of which is source component) in or on the base 　piece with part or all of the inter-connected lines.
　(2) Semi-conductor Topography (referred to as Topography hereafter) means the three-dimensional integration between two or more components in the IC (at least one of which is source component) and part or all inter-connected lines, or the above three-dimensional integration prepared for IC making.
　(3) The Proprietor of the Topography refers to the natural person, legal person or other organizations that, in accordance with this law, owns the exclusive right of the topography.
　(4) Copying means remaking of the topography or ICs containing this topography.
　(5) Commercial Usage means to provide the protected topography, ICs containing this topography or articles containing this IC by importation, sales or other means for commercial purpose.

3. Topographies invented by Chinese natural person, legal person or other organizations are entitled the exclusive proprietor rights of the topography according to this law.
Topographies invented by aliens but commercially used in China first are entitled the exclusive proprietor rights of the topography according to this law.
Topographies invented by aliens whose countries have signed the agreement with China regarding topography protection or are joint signatories with China in some international conventions for topography protection are entitled the exclusive proprietor rights of the topography according to this law.

4. The topography to be protected should be original, which means that the topography is the inventor's own brainchild and its design is not considered common by topography designers and IC makers.
For the protected topographies composed of common designs, the composition of which should be in compliance with the above conditions.

5. The protection for topography in this law does not extend to ideas, processing procedures, operating methods, mathematical conceptions and etc.

6. The Intellectual Property Administrations (IPA) of State Council is, in conformity with this law, in charge of the management of the exclusive proprietorship of topography.

Chapter II: The Proprietorship of Semi-conductor Topography

7. The topography owner has the following exclusive rights:

　(1) To copy the whole or any original part of the protected topography;
　(2) To commercialize the protected topography, the ICs containing this topography or articles containing this IC.

8. The proprietorship of topography is effected by registration in IPA of State Council. Unregistered topographies are not under the protection of this law.

9. The exclusive proprietor right of topography belongs to the designer unless this law states otherwise.
When the topography is made in the will of the legal person or other organizations and presided by this legal person or organization that, at the meantime, takes the responsibility of this topography, the legal person or organization is the inventor.
When a natural person makes the topography, the natural person is the inventor.

10. For topography invented by more than two natural persons, legal persons or other organizations, its proprietorship shall be determined by agreement among the cooperators; when it is undetermined or determined unclearly, the proprietorship belongs to all the cooperators.

11. For topography made by consignment, its proprietorship shall be determined by agreement between the consignor and consignee; when it is undetermined or determined unclearly, the proprietorship belongs to the consignee.

12. The period of validity of proprietorship for topography shall be ten years, counted from the date of registration application or the date of commercialization of this topography at anywhere of the world by choosing the earlier one. However, regardless of whether it has been registered or commercialized, the topography shall not be under the protection of this law after fifteen years, counted from the date of its invention.

13. For topography whose proprietorship belongs to nature person, the proprietorship shall be transferred, in accordance with the China Inheritance Law, within the period of validity stated by this law at the decease of the natural person.

For topography whose proprietorship belongs to legal person or other organizations, the proprietorship shall be entitled, within the period of validity stated by this law, to those who inherit the rights and obligations after the legal person or organization modifies or ceases and desists. When no other legal person or organization is to inherit the rights and obligations of the modified or cease and desisted, the topography shall enter the status of being owned by the public.

Chapter III: The Registration of Topography

14. The IPA of State Council is in charge of topography registration and accepts the application thereof.

15. If the topography applied to register involves national security or important interest and should be kept in secret, it should be dealt with in compliance with relevant state regulations.

16. The documents/materials required by the topography registration application are:

　(1) Application Form of topography registration;
　(2) The reproduction or sample of the topography;
　(3) The sample product of the Integrated Circuit containing this topography if the topography has been commercialized;
　(4) Other documents/materials required by IPA of the State Council.

17. If the registration application for the topography has not been filed with the IPA of State Council within two years after its first commercial usage at any place in the world, the IPA will not accept the application.

18. If the application passes the preliminary examination without any reason of refusal, the IPA of the State Council shall register it, issue the registration certificate and publish it.

19. Where the applicant is dissatisfied with the refusal made by the IPA, he may, within three months from receipt of the notification, apply for a review. The IPA shall make a decision and notify the applicant. If the applicant is still dissatisfied with the decision of the review, he may, within three months from receipt of the notification, file a lawsuit with the people's court.

20. Where the IPA finds a registered topography is not in conformity with this law, the IPA shall cancel its registration, notify the proprietor and publish the cancellation. If the proprietor is dissatisfied with the decision, he may, within three months from receipt of the notification, file a lawsuit with the people's court.

21. The IPA of the State Council is obliged to keep secret of the content of the topography before its registration being published.

Chapter IV: The Execution of Topography Proprietorship

22. The proprietor of topography is entitled to assign or license others to use his topography.
When applying for the assignment of topography, the assignor and assignee shall conclude a written contract and make a registration at IPA. The IPA shall publish the assignment. The assignment shall come into effect from the date of registration.
To license others to use his topography, the licensor and licensee shall conclude a written contract.

23. The following behaviors, without the permission of the topography owner or the payment to him, are deemed allowable:

　(1) To copy the protected topography for individual purpose or simply for evaluation, analysis, research, teaching purposes;
　(2) To invent another original topography on the basis of the above evaluation and analysis;
　(3) To reproduce and commercialize the topography independently invented by the inventor, which is identical with other's topography.

24. After a protected topography, the ICs containing this topography or the articles containing the IC being put into market by its proprietor or by others under his permission, others may use it for commercial purpose again without the permission of the proprietor or the payment to him.

25. When the state is in emergency or uncommon situation, either for the purpose of public interest or for the remedies needed for the proprietor's unfair-competition behaviors confirmed by the people's court and the administration for the supervision of unfair-competition according to relevant laws, the IPA of the State Council may issue the involuntary license to use this topography.

26. After making the decision of involuntary licensing, the IPA shall notify the topography proprietor in time.

The decision of involuntary licensing shall clarify the time and limit of use on the basis of reasons of involuntary licensing. The limit of use shall be narrowed to non-commercial use for public purpose, or to remedies needed for the proprietor's unfair-competition behaviors confirmed by the people's court and the administration for the supervision of unfair-competition according to relevant laws.
When the reasons for involuntary licensing disappear and will not occur again, the IPA of the State Council shall, in response to the proprietor's request, take an examination and make the decision of ending the involuntary licensing.

27. The natural person, legal person or other organizations that has acquired the involuntary license dose not have the exclusive right of use and the right of licensing to others.

28. The natural person, legal person or other organizations that has acquired the involuntary license shall pay reasonable loyalty to the topography proprietor, the amount of which should be conferred by both concerned parties. If the two parties can not reach an agreement, the IPA shall determine the amount of loyalty.

29. When the topography proprietor is dissatisfied with the decision of involuntary licensing made by the IPA of the State Council, or the topography proprietor and the natural person, legal person and other organizations that has acquired the involuntary license are dissatisfied with the amount of loyalty, they may, within three months after the receipt of the notification, file a lawsuit with the people's court.

Chapter V: Legal Responsibilities

30. Apart from exceptions permitted by this law, person who, without the permission of the topography proprietor, conducts the following behaviors shall immediately cease the infringement and compensate the damage:

　(1) To copy the whole or any original part of the protected topography;
　(2) To provide for commercial purpose the protected topography, ICs containing this topography or articles containing the IC by importation, sales or other means.

The compensation of topography infringement shall equal to the profit acquired by the infringer or the damage inflicted to the infringed, including the reasonable expenditure used by the infringed to check the infringement.

31. To use the topography without the permission of its proprietor is an infringement to the proprietor's exclusive rights and the disputes raised therefrom shall be resolved by conference among the concerned parties. If the concerned parities are not willing to confer or the conference is unsuccessful, the topography proprietor or interested party may file lawsuits with the people's court or have recourse to IPA for administrative settlement. For the administrative settlement, when the infringement is uphold by the IPA, the IPA may order the infringer to cease the infringement immediately and confiscate and destroy the infringing products or articles. If dissatisfied, the infringer may, within fifteen days from the receipt of the notification of this decision, file a lawsuit with the people's court in accordance with China Administrative Litigation Law. If the infringer does not file lawsuit after the specified period expires and does not stop the infringement, the IPA may request the people' court for compulsory execution thereof. Upon the request of the concerned parties, the IPA of the State Council may mediate for the amount of compensation for topography infringement. If the mediation fails, the concerned parties may recourse to litigation before the people's court in accordance with China Civil Litigation Law.

32. If the topography proprietor or interested party has evidences showing that other person is infringing or will infringe his exclusive right of topography and his legitimate rights are being unretrievably damaged if the infringement continues, he may apply to the people's court for the stop of the infringement and taking assets-protecting actions.

33. It is not deemed to be an infringement if a person is unaware or without any plausible reasons to be aware of the illegal contents when he acquires and commercializes the ICs containing the protected topography or articles containing the IC.

34. Employees of the IPA of the State Council who have neglected their duties, misused their authorities or indulged in malpractice for the benefit of relatives or friends during the topography management shall be prosecuted, according to law, by the judicial organ for his criminal liabilities if his conduct is so serious as to constitute a crime. If the conduct is not so serious as to constitute a crime, the person in question shall be given the disciplinary sanction.

Chapter VI: Supplementary Provisions

35. Any application for a topography registration and for other matters concerning topography shall be subject to payment of the fee as prescribed. The schedule of fees shall be prescribed jointly by the administration of the State Council responsible for prices and the IPA and be published by the IPA.

36. These Regulations shall enter into force on October 1, 2001.