INDIA FOCUS: SEMICONDUCTORS
TWO LINES OF ATTACK: PROTECTING
SEMICONDUCTORS IN INDIA
Companies looking to protect inventions in the Indian semiconductor industry should be aware of the different applicable laws, say Afsar S and Chinthan Japhet.
Semiconductors have played a major role in the growth of technology over the last few decades. Te powerhouse behind the growth was undoubtedly progress in integrated circuits (IC) technology. Te IC is an integral part of every computer chip. Cutting-edge fiſth and sixth generation computers are now using very large scale integration (VLSI), wherein numerous transistors are accommodated on a single chip.
India has become a hub for semiconductor design, with nearly 2,000 chips being designed per year and more than 20,000 engineers working in various aspects of chip design and verification. India’s semiconductor consumption has reached $8 billion in 2012, a 7.4 per cent increase from 2011. It is expected to reach $9.6 billion in 2013. Te various industries using semiconductor technology
in India are wireless handsets, communications, information technology (IT) and office automation.
Laws protecting ICs
In India semiconductor ICs and layout designs are protected under the Semiconductor ICs Layout- Design (SICLD) Act, 2000. Te Indian Patents Act excludes patenting of topography of ICs and layout designs in view of Section 3(o) of the Patents Act.
Te SICLD Act defines the following terms:
Semiconductor IC: A product with transistors or 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: A layout of transistors and other circuitry elements including lead wires connecting such elements and expressed in any manner in a semiconductor IC.
As per the TRIPS Agreement, ‘layout design’ is synonymous with ‘topography’. A layout design is defined as the three-dimensional disposition, however expressed, of the elements, at least one of which is an active element, and of some or all of the interconnections of an IC, or such a three- dimensional disposition prepared for an IC intended for manufacture.
48 World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2013 Protection under the SICLD Act
A layout design expressed in any original manner which is inherently distinctive and capable of being distinguishable from any other registered layout design, and which has not been commercially exploited for more than two years from the date of application for the registration, is protected or registered under the act.
Decisions related to Section 3(o)
Patent application 1231/MAS/1999 titled ‘IC of inductive elements’ claimed an IC. Te controller
“THE APPLICATION RELATED TO A SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE AND A METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME. THIS CANNOT BE CONSIDERED AS TOPOGRAPHY OF ICS, THE APPLICANT SAID, AND THE PATENT WAS GRANTED.”
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