Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Semiconductors definition

What does Semiconductors mean? In legal practice, “semiconductors” commonly refers to integrated circuits (computer chips) and, in the IP context, the layout-design (topography) of their circuitry. The word itself is descriptive; legislation protects the “topography of a semiconductor product”. In the UK (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), protection is provided by the design right (Semiconductor Topographies) Regulations 1989 (as amended), derived from Directive 87/54/EEC. The semiconductor topography right is an unregistered monopoly lasting ten years from the end of the calendar year of first commercial exploitation. It enables the right holder to control reproduction of the topography and the commercial exploitation, import...

Semiconductor topography rights in the UK: subsistence, qualification (including WTO countries), ownership, duration, infringement and reverse engineering; exhaustion and parallel imports; and complementary copyright, patent and trade secret protection

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Practice notes

Background to semiconductors

A semiconductor is, at its core, a material with electrical conductivity that can permit or, alternatively, obstruct the passage of electric current. Chips based on semiconductors—seen in devices such as computers, mobile phones and microwave ovens—are typically produced from circular silicon wafers. Intellectual property rights operate to safeguard the semiconductor sector, encompassing electronic circuit boards and the component chips.

Semiconductor topography rights

The semiconductor topography right sits alongside unregistered design law and is aimed at protecting a particular industrial article, namely, as noted above, the electronic circuit board and the layout of semiconductors. This right entered UK law through the Design Right (Semiconductor Topographies) Regulations 1989, SI 1989/1100, which implemented European Directive 87/54/EC and now form assimilated law as EU‑derived domestic legislation. Assimilated law is the term applied to retained EU law (REUL) that continues in force after the end of 2023. The shift from REUL (and related expressions) to assimilated law denotes a change in its status and treatment within UK law, in that it is, in general, to be construed under ordinary domestic legal principles...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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