Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits Act 1999 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Layout-Design Rights and Infringement Action
11. Innocent infringement
Feedback & supportThe rights of a qualified owner in a protected layout‑design are not infringed by a person who commercially exploits, or authorises the commercial exploitation of —
qualified owner
“qualified owner” means —(a)a qualified person who, under section 6(1), is the owner of a layout‑design; or(b)a person who, under section 6(1), is the owner of a layout‑design which was not commercially exploited anywhere else in the world before it was commercially exploited in Singapore or in a qualifying country,and includes a person, whether or not a qualified person, who is a successor in title to a qualified owner of the layout‑design;
a copy of the protected layout-design;
an unauthorised integrated circuit, being an integrated circuit in which the protected layout‑design is incorporated; or
an article that contains such an integrated circuit,if, at the time when the person acquired the copy, integrated circuit or article, the person did not know, and could not be reasonably expected to have known, that the copy was unauthorised, the integrated circuit was unauthorised or that the article contained an unauthorised integrated circuit, as the case may be.
Where a person referred to in subsection (1) becomes aware or could reasonably be expected to become aware that the copy was unauthorised, the integrated circuit was unauthorised or that the article contains an unauthorised integrated circuit (as the case may be) that subsection continues to apply to any subsequent commercial exploitation of the copy, integrated circuit or article if and only if the person pays to the qualified owner such remuneration —
integrated circuit
“integrated circuit” means a product, in its final form or an intermediate form, in which the elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or all of the interconnections are integrally formed in and on, or in or on, a piece of material and which is intended to perform an electronic function;
as is agreed;
as is determined by a method agreed between the person and the qualified owner; or
in default of agreement, as is determined by the Court on an application made by either of them.
In this section —
a copy of a protected layout-design is unauthorised if it is made without the consent of the qualified owner of the layout‑design; and
an integrated circuit which incorporates a protected layout‑design is unauthorised if such incorporation is done without the consent of the qualified owner of the layout‑design.