17 U.S.C. § 902 — Subject matter of protection

Page 204 TITLE 17—COPYRIGHTS § 902 (b) For purposes of this chapter, the distribu- tion or importation of a product incorporating a semiconductor chip product as a part thereof is a distribution or importation of that semicon- ductor chip product. (Added Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 302, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3347.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 304, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3356, provided that: ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the pur- poses of this title and the amendments made by this title [enacting this chapter].’’ § 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 com- mercially 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 ex- ploited in the United States; or (C) the mask work comes within the scope of a Presidential proclamation issued under para- graph (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 ex- tends protection to mask works of its own na- tionals 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 ex- tend protection under this chapter to mask works (i) of owners who are, on the date on which the mask works are registered under sec- tion 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 ex- ploited in that nation. The President may re- vise, suspend, or revoke any such proclamation or impose any conditions or limitations on pro- tection 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, com- monplace, or familiar in the semiconductor in- dustry, or variations of such designs, com- bined in a way that, considered as a whole, is not original. (c) In no case does protection under this chap- ter for a mask work extend to any idea, proce- dure, process, system, method of operation, con- cept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illus- trated, or embodied in such work. (Added Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 302, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3348; amended Pub. L. 100–159, § 3, Nov. 9, 1987, 101 Stat. 900.) Editorial Notes 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 condi- tions or limitations on protection extended under any such proclamation. Executive Documents 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 or- dered 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], re- quests 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 pre- sented to the President through the Secretary of Com- merce in accordance with such regulations as the Sec- retary may, after consultation with the Secretary of State, prescribe and cause to be published in the Fed- eral Register. RONALD REAGAN. § 903. Ownership, transfer, licensing, and rec- ordation (a) The exclusive rights in a mask work sub- ject to protection under this chapter belong to the owner of the mask work. (b) The owner of the exclusive rights in a mask work may transfer all of those rights, or license all or less than all of those rights, by any written instrument signed by such owner or a duly authorized agent of the owner. Such rights may be transferred or licensed by operation of law, may be bequeathed by will, and may pass as personal property by the applicable laws of in- testate succession. (c)(1) Any document pertaining to a mask work may be recorded in the Copyright Office if the document filed for recordation bears the ac- tual signature of the person who executed it, or if it is accompanied by a sworn or official cer- tification that it is a true copy of the original, signed document. The Register of Copyrights shall, upon receipt of the document and the fee specified pursuant to section 908(d), record the document and return it with a certificate of rec- ordation. The recordation of any transfer or li- cense under this paragraph gives all persons constructive notice of the facts stated in the re- corded document concerning the transfer or li- cense. (2) In any case in which conflicting transfers of the exclusive rights in a mask work are made,