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This Act may be cited as the Circuit Layouts Act 1989.
Sections 1 and 2 commence on the day on which this Act receives the Royal Assent.
The remaining provisions of this Act commence on a day or days to be fixed by Proclamation.
This Act extends to every external Territory.
Subject to section 25, this Act binds the Crown.
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:
the maker of which was, at the time the layout was made, an eligible person; or
that was first commercially exploited in Australia or in an eligible foreign country.
eligible person means:
an Australian citizen or a person resident in Australia;
a body corporate incorporated by or under a law in force in a State or Territory;
a citizen, national or resident of an eligible foreign country; or
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:
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
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:
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
in any other case‑at the end of the period of 10 calendar years after the calendar year in which the layout was made.
For the purposes of this Act, a person who at a material time was ordinarily resident in Australia or a foreign country but was temporarily absent from that country shall be treated as if he or she had been resident in Australia or that country, as the case may be, at that time.
This Act applies in relation to a circuit layout, whether made before or after the commencement of Part II, but an action does not lie under Part III in respect of any act done before that commencement in relation to the layout, a copy of the layout, or an integrated circuit made in accordance with the layout.
For the purposes of this Act, a circuit layout shall be taken to have been commercially exploited if the layout, a copy of the layout, or an integrated circuit made in accordance with the layout (whether or not the integrated circuit is incorporated in another thing) is:
sold, let for hire or otherwise distributed by way of trade;
offered or exposed for sale or hire, or other distribution by way of trade; or
imported for the purpose of sale, letting for hire, or other distribution by way of trade.
For the purposes of this Act, a copy of a circuit layout or an integrated circuit made in accordance with a circuit layout shall be taken to have been commercially exploited if it is:
sold, let for hire or otherwise distributed by way of trade;
offered or exposed for sale or hire, or other distribution by way of trade; or
imported for the purpose of sale, letting for hire, or other distribution by way of trade.
For the purposes of this Act, the exclusive right to do an act in relation to an eligible layout, or an integrated circuit made in accordance with an eligible layout, includes the exclusive right to authorise a person to do that act in relation to that layout or integrated circuit.
For the purposes of this Act:
a person who used a computer to make an eligible layout shall be taken to have made the layout; and
an eligible layout shall be taken to have been made when it was first fixed in a material form.
Without otherwise limiting the meaning of the word original in this Act, a circuit layout shall be taken not to be original if:
its making involved no creative contribution by the maker; or
it was commonplace at the time it was made.
For the purposes of this Act, an act shall be taken to have been done with the licence of the owner of EL rights if doing that act was authorised by a licence binding the owner.