Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

CIRCUIT LAYOUTS ACT 1989 - SECT 5

    In this Act:

"action" means a proceeding of a civil nature between parties, and includes a counterclaim.

"circuit layout" means a representation, fixed in any material form, of the three - dimensional location of the active and passive elements and interconnections making up an integrated circuit.

"commercially exploited" has the meaning given in section   8.

"eligible foreign country" means a foreign country declared by the regulations to be an eligible foreign country for the purposes of this Act.

"eligible layout" means an original circuit layout:

  (a)   the maker of which was, at the time the layout was made, an eligible person; or

  (b)   that was first commercially exploited in Australia or in an eligible foreign country.

"eligible person" means:

  (a)   an Australian citizen or a person resident in Australia ;

  (b)   a body corporate incorporated by or under a law in force in a State or Territory;

  (c)   a citizen, national or resident of an eligible foreign country; or

  (d)   a body corporate incorporated by or under a law of an eligible foreign country.

"EL rights" means the exclusive rights specified in section   17 in relation to an eligible layout.

"exclusive licence" means a licence in writing, signed by or on behalf of the owner or prospective owner of EL rights, authorising the licensee, to the exclusion of all other persons, to do an act that, under this Act, the owner would, but for the licence, have the exclusive right to do.

"exclusive right" has the meaning given in section   9.

"future EL rights" means EL rights that will come into existence at a future time or on the happening of a future event.

"integrated circuit" means a circuit, whether in a final form or an intermediate form, the purpose, or one of the purposes, of which is to perform an electronic function, being a circuit in which the active and passive elements, and any of the interconnections, are integrally formed in or on a piece of material.

"material form" , in relation to a circuit layout, includes any form of storage (whether visible or not) from which the layout, or a substantial part of it, can be reproduced.

"other party" , in relation to an owner of EL rights or the exclusive licensee of those rights, means the exclusive licensee or the owner, respectively.

"prospective owner" means:

  (a)   in relation to future EL rights that are not the subject of an agreement of the kind referred to in subsection 44(1)--the person who will be the owner of those rights when they come into existence; or

  (b)   in relation to future EL rights that are the subject of such an agreement - the person in whom those rights will vest under that subsection when they come into existence.

"protection period" , in relation to an eligible layout, means the period beginning on the day on which the layout was made and ending:

  (a)   if the layout is first commercially exploited within 10 calendar years after the calendar year in which the layout was made - at the end of the tenth calendar year after the calendar year in which the layout was first commercially exploited; and

  (b)   in any other case - at the end of the period of 10 calendar years after the calendar year in which the layout was made.