– Law on Exclusive Rights to Layout Design of an Integrated Circuit, in force since July 1, 1991, last amended on January 1, 2017.

Applicant: the creator or his assignee.

Foreigners: must appoint a resident agent. This law applies to creators who are from a state which reciprocally grants corresponding rights to Finnish citizens. By decree, such States are (1992): Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States of America.

Definition: the layout design of an integrated circuit refers to the three-dimensional positioning of the parts of an integrated circuit, in whatever form it is realized or expressed. An integrated circuit refers to an electrical circuit, in which the elements -of which at least one is often active- and some or all of the connections between them are mounted on a semiconductor or insulating base to form a functional whole, and which is intended to perform electronic circuit functions.

Term of filing: registration must be applied for at the latest two years after the date on which the layout design of an integrated circuit was first made public.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Applicant, creator, title of the integrated circuit;
2. Year of creation; date when the circuit was first made public;
3. The layout design, in duplicate;
4. The mask or its part from which the circuit can be produced, in duplicate;
5. The different layers of the circuit, in duplicate.

Secret application: any particular material required to characterize the layout of the IC, but at most half of the layers, may be kept secret.

Originality: the registration application must contain a declaration affirming that the layout design of the integrated circuit is the result of creative and original intellectual work and that it has not been directly copied.

Examination: only for formal defects.

Registration: if the application meets the formal requirements, the layout design of an integrated circuit is entered in the Register, given a registration number and the applicant receives a certificate of registration.

Publication: after registration, the documents relating to the application will be made public (unless otherwise determined by the secrecy requirement).

Validity: ten years from filing date or from the date at which it was first made public.

Invalidation of registration: anyone may demand the invalidation of a registration if: (a) the layout design of an integrated circuit is not original; (b) the creator of the layout design is a citizen of a state to which the law does not apply; (c) registration has been applied for more than two years after the first distribution of the layout design of an integrated circuit to the public; (d) registration has not been applied for, or the layout design of an integrated circuit has not been made public within fifteen years of the end of the year of creation of the layout design of an integrated circuit; (e) the material for characterizing the layout design of an integrated circuit is not sufficient for producing an integrated circuit; (f) the application contains several layout designs of integrated circuits.

Provisions on penalties for infringement of exclusive rights: are to a great extent similar to those relating to the patent rights practice.