Pic Tutorial

Main article: Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984

Prior to 1984, it was not necessarily illegal to produce a competing chip with an identical layout. As the legislative history for the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984, or SCPA, explained, patent and copyright protection for chip layouts, or topographies, were largely unavailable. This led to considerable complaint by U.S. chip manufacturers–notably, Intel, which took the lead in seeking legislation, along with the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)–against what they termed “chip piracy.”
A 1984 addition to US law, the SCPA, made all so-called mask works (i.e., chip topographies) protectable if registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Similar rules apply in most other countries that manufacture ICs. (This is a simplified explanation – see SCPA for legal details.)