Supreme Court Releases LED Lighting Integrated Circuit Layout Design Case
The Supreme People's Court on the 24th announced one of the top ten intellectual property judicial protection cases of Chinese courts in 2010, the LED lighting integrated circuit layout design case.
【Case Summary】China Resources Sil-Wei Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sil-Wei Company) enjoys the exclusive right to the PT4115 integrated circuit layout design used for LED lighting. Nanjing Source Peak Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Source Peak Company) entered into an agreement with an outsider, China Resources Semiconductor International Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Resources Semiconductor Company), to develop the 1360 integrated circuit. Source Peak Company performed reverse engineering on the PT4115 chip sold by Sil-Wei Company, formed the layout design of the 1360 integrated circuit, and provided it to China Resources Semiconductor Company, receiving a design fee of 100,000 yuan. China Resources Semiconductor Company entrusted a third party to produce the 1360 dies and gave priority sales to Source Peak Company. After packaging the dies, Source Peak Company encoded them into 6808, 6807 and other series of integrated circuits for sale on the market and profited. Sil-Wei Company filed a lawsuit with the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on the grounds that Source Peak Company infringed its exclusive right to the integrated circuit layout design.
The court held that the layout design commissioned by Source Peak Company and the layout design contained in the integrated circuits it sold were identical to the layout design in question for which Sil-Wei Company enjoys the exclusive right. Therefore, through means of reverse engineering, Source Peak Company copied the entirety of the PT4115 layout design in question and provided it to China Resources Semiconductor Company for commercial exploitation without the permission of the rights holder, which constituted an infringement of the exclusive right to the PT4115 layout design; at the same time, Source Peak Company, for commercial purposes, sold integrated circuits containing its illegally copied layout design, which also constituted an infringement of the exclusive right to the PT4115 layout design. The court therefore ruled that Source Peak Company immediately cease its acts of infringing the exclusive right to the PT4115 integrated circuit layout design, compensate Sil-Wei Company for its economic losses and the reasonable expenses paid by Sil-Wei Company to stop the infringing acts, totaling more than 230,000 yuan. Neither party appealed.
【Typical Significance】This case is a typical case of infringement of the exclusive right to integrated circuit layout design, involving basic legal issues such as the determination of the scope of right protection and the method of infringement determination. It provides valuable experience for the trial of such cases and is also a concrete embodiment of the People's Court judicially protecting the exclusive right to integrated circuit layout design, and has been widely recognized by the industry.
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Top Ten Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property in 2010
I. Civil Cases of Intellectual Property
1. Invention Patent Case of “Elevated Three-dimensional Building” at the French Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo
2. "Crocodile" Trademark Case
3. Eli Lilly and Company Gemcitabine and Gemcitabine Hydrochloride Patent Case
4. "Tianfu Cola" Formula and Production Process Trade Secret Case
5. Unfair Competition Dispute Case Concerning Interference with Search Engine Services
6. "Red-Fleshed Pomelo" Plant New Variety Rights Case
7. LED Integrated Circuit Layout Design Case for Lighting
II. Intellectual Property Administrative Cases
8. Honda Automobile Design Patent Invalidation Case
9. 'Xinghua Village' Trademark Opposition Retrial Case
III. Intellectual Property Criminal Cases
10. Counterfeit Imported Liquor Manufacturing and Sales Case