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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 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.
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