International Protection of Layout-Designs

The 1989 Washington Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits has been drafted within the WIPO framework, however, it has not yet entered into force. Therefore, exclusive rights to a layout-design must be applied for separately in each country, where the applicant wishes to obtain protection for the layout-design. In the law of several countries, protection of semiconductor products is based on the principle of reciprocity. This means, that protection is offered only to international applicants resident in countries, in which the national legislation provides reciprocal protection.

In Finland, the protection of design-layout of integrated circuits has been extended to apply to creators or rights holders from all countries that have ratified the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO).