• Protection for a layout design of an integrated circuit arises automatically under the law, provided that the layout design satisfies the following requirements:
  • It is a result of the creator’s own intellectual efforts;

• A layout design is protected once it has been recorded in documentary form or incorporated into an integrated circuit, whichever occurs earlier.

• Generally, the person who creates the layout design is the first owner of the layout design rights.

• Where a layout design is created in the course of employment or apprenticeship, the employer is the first owner, unless otherwise agreed.

• Where a layout design is jointly created, the layout design rights are jointly owned, unless otherwise agreed.

• Where a layout design is created pursuant to a commission for valuable consideration, the person who commissioned the layout design is the first owner, unless otherwise agreed.

• The owner of a protected layout design has the exclusive rights to:
  • Copy and authorise the copying of the layout design, or any substantial part of it, in a material form;
    • Make an integrated circuit in accordance with the layout design or with a copy of the layout design;
    • Commercially exploit, and to authorise the commercial exploitation of, the layout design.

Protection for a layout design lasts for a limited period beginning on the day it was made and ending:

• where the layout design is first commercially exploited within five (5) years after it is made, at the end of the tenth (10th) year after the year of first commercial exploitation; or
• in any other case, at the end of the fifteenth (15th) year after the year in which the layout design was made.

Certain acts may be carried out without the authorisation of the layout design owner, including:

• innocent exploitation, where a person exploits a layout design without knowing, and having no reasonable grounds to know, that the layout design is protected;
• copying a layout design or making an integrated circuit in accordance with an existing layout design or with a copy of it solely for private use;
• copying or making an integrated circuit in accordance with an existing layout design or with a copy of it solely for research or teaching purposes;
• making of a copy or copies of a layout design for evaluation or analysis, including the creation of an original layout design based on such evaluation or analysis, the making of an integrated circuit based on such original layout design and the copying or commercial exploitation in Brunei Darussalam of such original layout design; and
• commercial exploitation of a layout design or integrated circuit that has been lawfully placed on the market by, or with the licence of, the owner.

Acts done by or on behalf of the Government in relation to a protected layout design do not constitute infringement where such acts are necessary for:

• national security or defence;
• a period of national emergency or circumstances of extreme urgency; or
• public non-commercial purposes.

provided that the Government has taken all reasonable steps to do so, unable to obtain the licence of the owner of the layout design rights, on reasonable terms, to do the act.