The Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Act 2000 in India and the mischief of freedom of infringement

Abstract

The Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Act 2000 (SICLDA) in India was passed in compliance with the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. A perusal of this legislation raises questions as to the haste with which it might have been drafted and passed by the legislature in India. The legislation draws provisions from the Patent Act 1970, the Copyright Act 1957 and the Trade Mark Act 1999. This Cinderella of intellectual property law has failed to draw academic debate on its provisions, possibly because, though the SICLDA was passed in 2000, it was only in 2011 that its major provisions came into force and, before it did so, it remained in obscurity. The author of this article has endeavoured to highlight a substantial error in the SICLDA which makes freedom of infringement under the Act susceptible to mistreatment and unconstitutional.