How do I obtain chips rights?

When you develop a chip, chips rights arise automatically as soon as the topography is coded or fixed. Two conditions have to be fulfilled in order to obtain chips rights:

• your chip needs to be the product of your own intellectual effort (in other words it needs to be original)
• the design (topography) cannot be generally known in the semiconductor industry. This means a logical and obvious combination of already existing designs cannot be protected.

In some countries, like Belgium, registration is not required to enforce these rights. In other counties, like the Netherlands, it is mandatory to file an application with the national intellectual property office. When filing your application, you must include drawings of the topography. These drawings must be clear enough for the topography to be identified.