Protecting Layout Designs on Printed Circuit Boards in China and Some Key Industrial Countries -- New Regulatory Regime from a Law and Economics Perspective
(2013) 18 Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, pp. 419-38
20 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2013
Date Written: October 7, 2013
Abstract
This article examines the position in China and a number of leading industrial jurisdictions under the regimes of copyright, patents and designs and argues that there may be good grounds for conferring IP protection in the layout designs in PCBs, as a form of sui generis IP right. In particular, this article addresses IP protection for PCBs in China, a major manufacturing-dependent developing jurisdiction. Local manufacturers in developing countries such as China may make pirate copies of PCBs that have been copied from foreign manufacturers and use the boards in locally and cheaply made electrical devices. Therefore, the issue of IP protection for PCBs is not only a doctrinal inquiry into the parameters of IP law but also an inquiry into the policy interests and the balance of interests between industrialized and developing countries.
Keywords: Layout design on printed circuit boards, regulatory regime, IP protection, law and economics analysis
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