A Research Of PCB Protection Under Intellectual Property Law

How to protect PCB design under Intellectual Property right is a unsolved question left by Dbtel.cn v. Motorola.cn PCB design falls in to the category of Industrial Design, a kind of designs for mass production, their utility function and special attribute leave hardly any IP remedy to be rendered nor a proper cause of action even.It is general believed that PCB design can be protected only in the case that certain render is expressly stipulated, however the statute on this very issue remain unchanged in the past decade.By discussing the case,Dbtel.cn v. Motorola.cn,and consulted by the foreign laws and cases, this paper try to find the possibility to get PCB design a implied protection under the "product design" of current Chinese Copyright Law, section 7,article 3.The first part lays a foundation for seeking the leak hole of the current system though comparing the concept, both from Intellectual Property view and IC industry view, of PCB,IC and mask work.It is expressly reasoned why PCB can not get protected in the Dbtel.cn v. Motorola.cn case, in order to show the awkard situation and propose the topic on this issue,in the second part.Then the coming part gave the logic explanation on why PCB should have get remedy in the Dbtel.cn v. Motorola.cn case. PCB design is closer to the category of Copyright, due to its intellectual attribute, so it is better to be rendered by special protection or neighboring rights. In order to assisted this point of view, the article element was the very thing should be protected, the "Separability" doctrine set by Mazer v. Stein and section 51(3),Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988 as well as other relevant cases was take as consult. Further proposed a implied protection under current system.At the end of this paper, a detailed suggestion of amendment was carefully given for the construction of PCB protection under IP law systematically.