ACT
ON THE PROTECTION OF TOPOGRAPHIES OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Official Consolidated Version
(ZVTPPV-UPB2)
Article 1
Pursuant to Council Directive 87/54/EEC of 16 December 1986 on the legal
protection of topographies of semiconductor products (OJ L 24, of 27. 1. 1987, p. 36)
and Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April
2004 on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (OJ L 195, of 2. 6. 2004, p.
16), this Act shall regulate the granting of protection and the protection of integrated
circuit topographies.
Article 2
“Integrated circuit” shall mean the final or intermediate form of any product intended
to perform an electronic function, consisting of a body of material which includes one
or more connected layers composed of integrated elements, of which at least one
shall be an active element.
“Topography of an integrated circuit” (hereinafter: “topography”) shall mean an
invariably fixed series of related images for each layer of the integrated circuit,
representing the disposition of semiconducting elements on layers, however fixed or
encoded or otherwise expressed.
“Commercial exploitation” of a topography shall mean the manufacture, sale, rental,
leasing or any other method of commercial distribution, directly relating to a
topography or an integrated circuit produced on the basis of the respective
topography.
Article 3
The right to protection of a topography shall apply in favour of its creator. Where a
topography is the product of more than one creator, the right shall apply in favour of
all such persons.
Where a topography is created in the course of the creator’s employment or on the
basis of an order, the right to protection shall apply in favour of the creator’s employer
or person placing the order, unless the terms of employment or of the order provide to
the contrary.
Persons entitled to the right under the first and second paragraphs may be natural
persons who are nationals of the Republic of Slovenia or companies and other legal
persons with a registered office in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia. Persons
entitled to the right under the first and second paragraphs may also be natural
persons who are not nationals of the Republic of Slovenia and do not have their
habitual residence in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia or foreign companies and other foreign legal persons, as a result of international contracts and conventions
or of the application of the principle of reciprocity.
Article 4
The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter: “Office”) shall maintain a
register of protected topographies and shall perform the administrative proceedings
and other administrative matters relating to granting the right of protection of a
topography.
Natural and legal persons may only be represented in proceedings before the Office
by representatives entered in the register of patent agents, pursuant to the act
regulating the granting and protection of industrial property rights.
There shall be no appeal against a decision taken by the Office in accordance with
this Act; however, an administrative appeal proceeding shall be possible.
The register referred to in the first paragraph is a public document.
Article 5
A topography may be protected if it is original.
A topography shall be considered to be original if it is the result of its creator’s own
intellectual efforts and was not commonplace in the semiconductor industry at the time
it was created.
Where a topography consists of elements that are commonplace in the relevant
industry, only the combination of such elements shall be protected, provided that it
fulfils the conditions relating to originality, as provided in the second paragraph.
Article 6
The holder of a protected topography shall be granted exclusive rights of
commercial exploitation, including the right to authorise or prohibit any of the following
acts:
– reproduction of the topography by any means or in any form;
– importation, sale or other form of distribution of the topography or integrated
circuit incorporating the respective topography or products that include the integrated
circuit incorporating the respective topography.
The exclusive rights referred to in the first paragraph shall not extend to any
concept, process, system or technique embodied in the topography other than the
topography itself.
Article 7
A topography shall be protected when it is entered in the register of topographies.
The exclusive rights shall commence application from the earlier of the following
dates:
– date of filing of application pursuant to Article 9 of this Act; – the date when the respective topography was first commercially exploited
anywhere in the world.
The exclusive rights shall cease application 10 years after the earlier of the
following dates:
– the end of the calendar year in which the period ten years from the date the topography
was first commercially exploited anywhere in the world expires; or
– the end of the calendar year following the expiry of the ten year period from the
date a correct application was filed.
The exclusive rights shall expire before the period defined in the third paragraph of
this Article if the respective fees are not paid or if the holder of the protected
topography renounces protection in writing.
Notwithstanding the third paragraph, if a topography has not been commercially
exploited, the exclusive rights shall expire after 15 years from its fixation or encoding.
Within the term of protection, the right holder shall be entitled to mark the respective
integrated circuit with a capital T.
Article 8
An application may not be filed after the lapse of two years from the date when the
topography was first commercially exploited.
Article 9
The procedure for the registration of a right of protection shall commence with a
request relating to entry in the register, which shall be accompanied by all prescribed
items (hereinafter: application).
The application must contain the following items:
– name and signature of the applicant, name of the creator, nationality and habitual
residence or registered office of the applicant;
– images relating to the respective topography, accompanied by a mention of their
sequence;
– an abstract comprising the characteristics of the electronic function or functions of an
integrated circuit, manufactured on the basis of the protected topography;
– if the topography has already been commercially exploited, a statement in writing of the
date when the respective topography was first commercially exploited.
A separate application shall be filed for each topography.
The minister responsible for intellectual property shall issue regulations specifying in
greater detail the contents of applications.
Article 10
Fees shall be paid in consideration of the registration and maintenance of protection
of a topography. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia shall lay down regulations determining
the amount of the fees mentioned in the first paragraph.
Article 11
The Office shall mark each application with the date of submission and an
application number, and shall issue the application with a receipt of application.
The Office shall examine whether the application fulfils the conditions relating to the
entry in the register of topographies as specified in the first paragraph of Article 9.
The request shall be rejected if the application does not fulfil those conditions.
If the application fulfils the conditions only in part, the Office shall invite the
applicant to amend the application within a time limit of two months. The Office may,
for legitimate reasons and at the request of the applicant, extend this term for another
three months. If the applicant fails to reply in due time, the application shall be
deemed to be withdrawn.
If an application fulfils all the conditions, it shall be entered in the register of
topographies and the applicant shall be issued a certificate relating to the entry in the
register.
The entry in the respective register shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the
Office.
Article 11a
At least the following data shall be entered in the register of topographies:
registration number, application date and number, date of publication, date of entry in
the register, data on the rights holder (surname, name and address or company name
and registered office), data on the creator (surname, name, address, wherein a
statement of town and country shall suffice), and the date the rights cease to apply.
Information on judicial disputes and final court judgments which the Office is notified
of shall also be entered in the register of topographies.
The minister responsible for intellectual property shall define the content of the
register and procedure for entering changes in the register in greater detail in an
implementing regulation.
Article 12
The registration shall be invalidated if it is established that:
– a topography is not original; or
– the application has not been filed by a natural or legal person entitled to
protection; or
– the application was filed after the time limit defined in the fifth paragraph of Article
7 or Article 8; or
– images relating to the topography do not enable its identification.
Any natural or legal person may institute an action before a competent court to
declare the rights null and void on the grounds referred to in the preceding paragraph.
The final judgment shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the Office.
Article 13
A person whose rights have been infringed may, in addition to claiming damages,
request that the person infringing his right be prohibited from continuing to infringe
those rights.
Any person who infringes the rights pertaining to a protected topography shall be
liable for any resultant damages in accordance with the general principles governing
compensation for damage. The following cases shall not be considered an
infringement of legally protected rights:
– reproduction of the protected topography for non-commercial purposes;
– reproduction of the protected topography for the purpose of analysing or evaluating its
concept, processes, systems and techniques, embodied in the topography, or for research or
educational purposes; or
– commercial exploitation of a new topography which has been created, however, on the
basis of analyses and evaluation of the protected topography, but is considered to be original
and the result of its creator’s own intellectual efforts and is not commonplace in the
semiconductor industry.
The provision of the first paragraph of this Article shall also apply to the successors
in title of the person referred to in the first paragraph of this Article.
Article 14
A person who commercially exploits an integrated circuit incorporating a protected
topography and who does not know or has no reasonable grounds to believe that the
topography of the product is protected, shall not be prevented from commercially
exploiting that integrated circuit.
Compensation, the amount of which depends on the scope of commercial
exploitation of the protected topography, may be claimed from the person referred to
in the first paragraph by the holder of the protected topography. Compensation may
be claimed as from the date when the person referred to in the first paragraph knew or
had reasonable grounds to believe that the topography was protected.
The amount of compensation under the second paragraph shall be agreed upon
between the holder of the protected topography and the person referred to in the first
paragraph of this Article. If no agreement is reached, the competent court shall
establish the amount of compensation.
The provisions of the first paragraph of this Article shall also apply to the successors
in title of the person.
The right of commercial exploitation referred to in the first paragraph shall be limited
to importation, sale or distribution of the products of integrated circuits or other
products incorporating the respective topography and shall apply to a topography or products that were on hand at the time the claim under the second paragraph was
received.
Article 15
The rights provided for in the second indent of the first paragraph of Article 6 of this
Act may not be exercised after the protected topography or integrated circuit has been
put on the market by the respective right holder or with his consent.
Article 16
Pursuant to this Act, only topographies that have been created after the date this
Act has entered into force may be protected.
Article 17
In procedures pursuant to this Act, the following provisions of the act regulating the
granting and protection of industrial property rights shall apply mutatis mutandis: the
sending of information on applications and granted or registered rights, confidentiality
of and access to applications, administrative disputes, procedures for legal action, the
transfer and licensing of rights, the entry of changes to the register, the procedure for
entering changes to the register, capacity to sue, infringement actions, damage
compensation, submission of evidence, temporary injunctions, protection of evidence,
obligation to notify, representation before the Office, representative of foreign persons,
and revocation and termination of authorisation.
The Act on the Protection of Topographies of Integrated Circuits – ZVTPPV
(Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 21/95) includes the following
transitional and final provision:
Article 18
The regulations referred to in Articles 9 and 10 shall be published no later than six
months following the date this Act enters into force.
Article 19
This Act shall enter into force on the fifteenth day after its publication in the Official
Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.
The Act amending the Act on the Protection of Topographies of Integrated
Circuits – ZVTPPV-A (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 96/02)
includes the following transitional and final provision:
Article 6
The minister responsible for intellectual property shall issue the implementing
regulation referred to in Article 4 of this Act within three months of this Act entering
into force.
Article 7
This Act shall enter into force on the fifteenth day after its publication in the Official
Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia. The Act amending the Act on the Protection of Topographies of Integrated
Circuits – ZVTPPV-B (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 60/06)
includes the following transitional and final provision:
Article 4
This Act shall enter into effect on the day after its publication in the Official Gazette
of the Republic of Slovenia.
