§ 902. — Subject matter of protection.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 17USC902]
TITLE 17--COPYRIGHTS
CHAPTER 9--PROTECTION OF SEMICONDUCTOR CHIP PRODUCTS
Sec. 902. Subject matter of protection
(a)(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (b), a mask work
fixed in a semiconductor chip product, by or under the authority of the
owner of the mask work, is eligible for protection under this chapter
if--
(A) on the date on which the mask work is registered under
section 908, or is first commercially exploited anywhere in the
world, whichever occurs first, the owner of the mask work is (i) a
national or domiciliary of the United States, (ii) a national,
domiciliary, or sovereign authority of a foreign nation that is a
party to a treaty affording protection to mask works to which the
United States is also a party, or (iii) a stateless person, wherever
that person may be domiciled;
(B) the mask work is first commercially exploited in the United
States; or
(C) the mask work comes within the scope of a Presidential
proclamation issued under paragraph (2).
(2) Whenever the President finds that a foreign nation extends, to
mask works of owners who are nationals or domiciliaries of the United
States protection (A) on substantially the same basis as that on which
the foreign nation extends protection to mask works of its own nationals
and domiciliaries and mask works first commercially exploited in that
nation, or (B) on substantially the same basis as provided in this
chapter, the President may by proclamation extend protection under this
chapter to mask works (i) of owners who are, on the date on which the
mask works are registered under section 908, or the date on which the
mask works are first commercially exploited anywhere in the world,
whichever occurs first, nationals, domiciliaries, or sovereign
authorities of that nation, or (ii) which are first commercially
exploited in that nation. The President may revise, suspend, or revoke
any such proclamation or impose any conditions or limitations on
protection extended under any such proclamation.
(b) Protection under this chapter shall not be available for a mask
work that--
(1) is not original; or
(2) consists of designs that are staple, commonplace, or
familiar in the semiconductor industry, or variations of such
designs, combined in a way that, considered as a whole, is not
original.
(c) In no case does protection under this chapter for a mask work
extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation,
concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is
described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
(Added Pub. L. 98-620, title III, Sec. 302, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3348;
amended Pub. L. 100-159, Sec. 3, Nov. 9, 1987, 101 Stat. 900.)
Amendments
1987--Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 100-159 inserted provision at end
permitting the President to revise, suspend, or revoke any such
proclamation or impose any conditions or limitations on protection
extended under any such proclamation.
Ex. Ord. No. 12504. Protection of Semiconductor Chip Products
Ex. Ord. No. 12504, Jan. 31, 1985, 50 F.R. 4849, provided:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
laws of the United States of America, including the Semiconductor Chip
Protection Act of 1984 (17 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) and in order to provide
for the orderly implementation of that Act, it is hereby ordered that,
subject to the authority of the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget under Executive Order No. 11030, as amended [44 U.S.C. 1505
note], requests for issuance by the President of a proclamation
extending the protection of Chapter 9 of title 17 of the United States
Code against unauthorized duplication of semiconductor chip products to
foreign nationals, domiciliaries, and sovereign authorities shall be
presented to the President through the Secretary of Commerce in
accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may, after
consultation with the Secretary of State, prescribe and cause to be
published in the Federal Register.
Ronald Reagan.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 914 of this title.
