---
kind: "section"
citation: "17 U.S.C. § 901"
title: "17"
title_heading: "Copyrights"
number: "901"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/17/901"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Protection of Semiconductor Chip Products"
---

# §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.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 302, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3347.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Authorization of Appropriations

Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 304, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3356, provided that: “There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this title and the amendments made by this title [enacting this chapter].”