Integrated+Circuit+Topographies

An integrated circuit topography is the three dimensional configuration of all the semiconductor parts, materials, and designs of integrated circuits. These ICT’s are in use for almost all modern electrical products using semiconductors. Integrated circuits or semiconductors are in place in such items as communication, manufacturing, space technologies, automobiles, and even ordinary household appliances. //[| The Integrated Circuit Topography Act]// and [|Integrated Circuit Topography Regulations] came into force on May 1, 1993. These pieces of legislation provide copyright protection against the specific design of the integrated circuit but not products that can have alternate designs to produce the same function. One of the main difference between other forms of copy protection such as patents, trade-marks, copyrights, or industrial designs is that ICT’s are not protected as part of intellectual property like the other forms.

It is important to register your ICT to give the owner exclusive legal rights to control reproduction or manufacturing of all or a part of the design, importing or commercially profiting from the design, or prevents other from manufacturing an industrial product with all or part of the ICT. There are however some exceptions to the above protection for research, analyzing, and teaching. One would think that the memory holding the instructions to operate the ICT would also be covered under the protection but this is not the case. Any set of instructions or programming can indeed be protected but only under the //[|Copyright Act]// as literary works or possibly patented as industrial methods. The protection of ITCs in Canada lasts for 10 years starting from the first of either a commercial venture or the filing of the ITC and ending on December 31 of the tenth year.

For more information on filing for an ITC you may consider [|A Guide to Integrated Circuit Topographies]