The Hindu Business Line : Office to protect chip design layout expected in a year

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New Delhi March 2 In the wake of the semiconductor manufacturing policy being approved, the Government now plans to set up a registration office to enable companies to safeguard the layouts of their chip designs. The office is expected to be operational within a year's time.

With the chip design industry expected to beef up its focus on the local market, the move is likely to further strengthen the domestic industry by offering them protection over their intellectual property rights.

Global companies such as Intel, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments, amongst others, have leveraged the chip designing industry of India to cater to the global markets. It is estimated that Texas Instruments has filed over 300 patents from its India design centre over the last few years and STMicroelectronics has filed over 230 original patents from its domestic design centre.

Mr Raj Khare, Chairman, India Semiconductor Association and former Managing Director of the multinational semiconductor company Broadcom, said the company had filed around 200 patents in four years' time and that the trend was likely to catch up as Indian chip design companies climb up the value chain.

"At present, companies are able to patent their designs in India. However, the current patent regime in the country does not safeguard the final layout, once incorporated in the chip. Protection on layout would further offer security to the companies on their Intellectual Property," said Mr Vivek Sharma, Director, India Design Centre and Vice President-Emerging Markets Region, STMicroelectronics India.

So while countries such as the US and the EU already have laws that govern chip design and products separately, in India the framework still has loopholes, sources said.