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Types of Intellectual Property Protection - Mask Works
Mask Works are defined as a series of related images, however fixed or encoded (1) 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 (2) 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.
Mask Works are protected by law in a similar fashion as Copyright. Although the Copyright Office administers the registration of Mask Works there are significant differences between Mask Work law and Copyright law. A circular produced by the Copyright Office on the Federal Statutory Protection of Mask Works provides an excellent explanation.
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