China steps up protection for chip designs in revised regulations
The revised regulations will take effect on Oct 15, according to the justice ministry and the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
China has strengthened regulations safeguarding integrated-circuit layout designs, intensifying registration criteria and introducing penalties for severe infringements. Premier Li Qiang signed the revised rules on July 23, with implementation set for October 15, according to the justice ministry and the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
These rules pertain to intricate layouts dictating component arrangement within a chip, which can embody substantial engineering effort and are pivotal to semiconductor advancements, even for entities not manufacturing chips.
The new provisions do not constitute export controls but underscore the heightened strategic significance Beijing ascribes to technologies crafted by Chinese entities. Amidst successive US limitations on access to advanced semiconductor-design software and manufacturing equipment, Chinese semiconductor industry stakeholders have intensified pursuits to cultivate indigenous alternatives.
Beijing is also contemplating broader measures to avert the transfer of strategically vital domestic technologies abroad or their acquisition by foreign entities.
The amendments aim to complicate the duplication of such work or the acquisition of legal rights to designs developed by others. Applicants must substantiate that filings arise from genuine creative endeavors, furnish declarations of originality, and distinctly delineate original components in submitted materials. Regulators will be empowered to reject applications deemed to lack these prerequisites, while the alterations also furnish a more precise rationale for contesting registrations erroneously granted.
The regulations bolster infringement remedies, permitting damages assessment grounded on losses borne by the rights holder or gains accrued by the infringer. Courts can impose punitive damages in egregious instances. The rules also elucidate mechanisms for licensing, transferring, or utilizing layout-design rights as collateral, and necessitate organizations spearheading their development to provide eligible personnel with reasonable rewards and remuneration.
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