---
kind: "section"
citation: "17 U.S.C. § 904"
title: "17"
title_heading: "Copyrights"
number: "904"
heading: "Duration of protection"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/17/904"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Protection of Semiconductor Chip Products"
---

# §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.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 302, Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3349.)