
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 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.
