---
kind: "range"
citation: "17 U.S.C. §§ 901–904"
title: "17"
from: "901"
to: "904"
count: 4
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/17/901..904"
---

# §901. Definitions

- (a) As used in this chapter—
  - (1) a “semiconductor chip product” is the final or intermediate form of any product—
    - (A) having two or more layers of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material, deposited or otherwise placed on, or etched away or otherwise removed from, a piece of semiconductor material in accordance with a predetermined pattern; and
    - (B) intended to perform electronic circuitry functions;
  - (2) a “mask work” is a series of related images, however fixed or encoded—
    - (A) having or representing the predetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material present or removed from the layers of a semiconductor chip product; and
    - (B) in which series the relation of the images to one another is that each image has the pattern of the surface of one form of the semiconductor chip product;
  - (3) a mask work is “fixed” in a semiconductor chip product when its embodiment in the product is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit the mask work to be perceived or reproduced from the product for a period of more than transitory duration;
  - (4) to “distribute” means to sell, or to lease, bail, or otherwise transfer, or to offer to sell, lease, bail, or otherwise transfer;
  - (5) to “commercially exploit” a mask work is to distribute to the public for commercial purposes a semiconductor chip product embodying the mask work; except that such term includes an offer to sell or transfer a semiconductor chip product only when the offer is in writing and occurs after the mask work is fixed in the semiconductor chip product;
  - (6) the “owner” of a mask work is the person who created the mask work, the legal representative of that person if that person is deceased or under a legal incapacity, or a party to whom all the rights under this chapter of such person or representative are transferred in accordance with [section 903(b)](/usc/17/903.md?p=b); except that, in the case of a work made within the scope of a person’s employment, the owner is the employer for whom the person created the mask work or a party to whom all the rights under this chapter of the employer are transferred in accordance with [section 903(b)](/usc/17/903.md?p=b);
  - (7) an “innocent purchaser” is a person who purchases a semiconductor chip product in good faith and without having notice of protection with respect to the semiconductor chip product;
  - (8) having “notice of protection” means having actual knowledge that, or reasonable grounds to believe that, a mask work is protected under this chapter; and
  - (9) an “infringing semiconductor chip product” is a semiconductor chip product which is made, imported, or distributed in violation of the exclusive rights of the owner of a mask work under this chapter.
- (b) For purposes of this chapter, the distribution or importation of a product incorporating a semiconductor chip product as a part thereof is a distribution or importation of that semiconductor chip product.

# §902. Subject matter of protection

- (a)
  - (1) Subject to the provisions of [subsection (b)](#b), a mask work fixed in a semiconductor chip product, by or under the authority of the owner of the mask work, is eligible for protection under this chapter if—
    - (A) on the date on which the mask work is registered under [section 908](/usc/17/908.md), or is first commercially exploited anywhere in the world, whichever occurs first, the owner of the mask work is (i) a national or domiciliary of the United States, (ii) a national, domiciliary, or sovereign authority of a foreign nation that is a party to a treaty affording protection to mask works to which the United States is also a party, or (iii) a stateless person, wherever that person may be domiciled;
    - (B) the mask work is first commercially exploited in the United States; or
    - (C) the mask work comes within the scope of a Presidential proclamation issued under [paragraph (2)](#a-2).
  - (2) Whenever the President finds that a foreign nation extends, to mask works of owners who are nationals or domiciliaries of the United States protection (A) on substantially the same basis as that on which the foreign nation extends protection to mask works of its own nationals and domiciliaries and mask works first commercially exploited in that nation, or (B) on substantially the same basis as provided in this chapter, the President may by proclamation extend protection under this chapter to mask works (i) of owners who are, on the date on which the mask works are registered under [section 908](/usc/17/908.md), or the date on which the mask works are first commercially exploited anywhere in the world, whichever occurs first, nationals, domiciliaries, or sovereign authorities of that nation, or (ii) which are first commercially exploited in that nation. The President may revise, suspend, or revoke any such proclamation or impose any conditions or limitations on protection extended under any such proclamation.
- (b) Protection under this chapter shall not be available for a mask work that—
  - (1) is not original; or
  - (2) consists of designs that are staple, commonplace, or familiar in the semiconductor industry, or variations of such designs, combined in a way that, considered as a whole, is not original.
- (c) In no case does protection under this chapter for a mask work extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

# §903. Ownership, transfer, licensing, and recordation

- (a) The exclusive rights in a mask work subject to protection under this chapter belong to the owner of the mask work.
- (b) The owner of the exclusive rights in a mask work may transfer all of those rights, or license all or less than all of those rights, by any written instrument signed by such owner or a duly authorized agent of the owner. Such rights may be transferred or licensed by operation of law, may be bequeathed by will, and may pass as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession.
- (c)
  - (1) Any document pertaining to a mask work may be recorded in the Copyright Office if the document filed for recordation bears the actual signature of the person who executed it, or if it is accompanied by a sworn or official certification that it is a true copy of the original, signed document. The Register of Copyrights shall, upon receipt of the document and the fee specified pursuant to [section 908(d)](/usc/17/908.md?p=d), record the document and return it with a certificate of recordation. The recordation of any transfer or license under this paragraph gives all persons constructive notice of the facts stated in the recorded document concerning the transfer or license.
  - (2) In any case in which conflicting transfers of the exclusive rights in a mask work are made, the transfer first executed shall be void as against a subsequent transfer which is made for a valuable consideration and without notice of the first transfer, unless the first transfer is recorded in accordance with [paragraph (1)](#c-1) within three months after the date on which it is executed, but in no case later than the day before the date of such subsequent transfer.
- (d) Mask works prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties are not protected under this chapter, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding exclusive rights in mask works transferred to the Government under [subsection (b)](#b).

# §904. Duration of protection

- (a) The protection provided for a mask work under this chapter shall commence on the date on which the mask work is registered under [section 908](/usc/17/908.md), or the date on which the mask work is first commercially exploited anywhere in the world, whichever occurs first.
- (b) Subject to [subsection (c)](#c) and the provisions of this chapter, the protection provided under this chapter to a mask work shall end ten years after the date on which such protection commences under [subsection (a)](#a).
- (c) All terms of protection provided in this section shall run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire.