section_path: Intellectual property
section_name: Intellectual property
paragraph_text: Intellectual property
  
  The possibility of copying by photographing each layer of an integrated circuit and preparing photomasks for its production on the basis of the photographs obtained is a reason for the introduction of legislation for the protection of layout designs. The US Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 established intellectual property protection for photomasks used to produce integrated circuits.
  
  A diplomatic conference held at Washington, D.C., in 1989 adopted a Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits, also called the Washington Treaty or IPIC Treaty. The treaty is currently not in force, but was partially integrated into the TRIPS agreement.
  
  There are several United States patents connected to the integrated circuit, which include patents by J.S. Kilby US3,138,743, US3,261,081, US3,434,015 and by R.F. Stewart US3,138,747.
  
  National laws protecting IC layout designs have been adopted in a number of countries, including Japan, the EC, the UK, Australia, and Korea. The UK enacted the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, c. 48, § 213, after it initially took the position that its copyright law fully protected chip topographies. See British Leyland Motor Corp. v. Armstrong Patents Co.
  
  Criticisms of inadequacy of the UK copyright approach as perceived by the US chip industry are summarized in further chip rights developments.
  
  Australia passed the Circuit Layouts Act of 1989 as a sui generis form of chip protection. Korea passed the Act Concerning the Layout-Design of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits in 1992.