Legal analysis: According to relevant legal provisions, integrated circuit layout design cannot obtain patent rights and should be protected by the exclusive rights of integrated circuit layout design. An integrated circuit is actually a practical graphic design, and its content is determined by the location of components with electronic functions in the integrated circuit, rather than the appearance of the product. Therefore, it cannot fall into the scope of design patent protection in the Patent Law.
Legal basis: "Regulations on the Protection of Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits"
Article 2 The meanings of the following terms in these Regulations: (1) Integrated circuits refer to semiconductor integrated circuits, that is, Semiconductor material is a substrate, and two or more components, at least one of which is an active component, and some or all of the interconnection lines are integrated into or on the substrate to perform an intermediate product or final product that performs certain electronic functions. ; (2) Integrated circuit layout design (hereinafter referred to as layout design) refers to the three-dimensional configuration of two or more components and some or all interconnection lines in an integrated circuit, at least one of which is an active component, or for the manufacture of integrated circuits and prepare the above-mentioned three-dimensional configuration; (3) Layout design right holder refers to the natural person, legal person or other organization that enjoys exclusive rights to layout design in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations; (4) Copying refers to the repeated production of layout design. (5) Commercial utilization refers to importing, selling or otherwise providing protected layout designs, integrated circuits containing the layout design, or providing protected layout designs or integrated circuits containing the layout design for commercial purposes. The behavior of the integrated circuit items.
Article 3 Layout designs created by Chinese natural persons, legal persons or other organizations shall enjoy the exclusive right to layout designs in accordance with these Regulations. If a layout design created by a foreigner is first put into commercial use within the territory of China, he shall enjoy the exclusive right to the layout design in accordance with these Regulations. For layout designs created by foreigners, if the country where the creator belongs has signed a relevant agreement on the protection of layout designs with China or has participated in an international treaty on the protection of layout designs with the Chinese government, it shall enjoy the exclusive rights to the layout designs in accordance with these Regulations.