Shanghai IP Court lists integrated circuit layout design cases for the first time

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court concluded the first case involving integrated circuit layout design since its establishment, and ordered the defendant, a certain technology company, to return RMB 36,000 to the plaintiff, Shanghai Testing Technology Co., Ltd.

In September 2017, the plaintiff and the defendant signed the contract in question, stipulating that the plaintiff entrusted the defendant to research and develop a four-channel high-frequency pulse signal high-speed acquisition card project. The defendant was required to complete chip selection, schematic design, and the first version of the acquisition card hardware design in the first phase from September 1, 2017 to October 31, 2017, and complete the whole machine acceptance test and project conclusion in the second phase from February 1, 2018 to February 28, 2018, and deliver relevant design documents, schematics, layouts, source codes, and production process control documents. The contract in question stipulated that the plaintiff was required to pay the research and development funds and remuneration in installments, with a total amount of 120,000 yuan before tax, of which it was stipulated that after the contract was signed, Party A was required to pay 30% of Party B's total development costs, that is, 36,000 yuan.

After the contract was signed, the plaintiff paid the first installment of 36,000 yuan to the defendant on September 30, 2017. However, the defendant did not deliver the first phase of work until December 8, 2017. The work delivered had problems such as large interference and unreasonable amplification circuit design. After that, the defendant did not deliver any work results.

On July 8, 2018, the defendant's legal representative told the plaintiff via WeChat that the advance payment of RMB 36,000 would be returned to the plaintiff before August 15, 2018. After that, despite repeated demands from the plaintiff, the defendant has not repaid the money.

After hearing the case, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held that, according to the terms of the contract in question, the defendant should complete the research and development work according to the schedule agreed in the contract in question, complete the whole machine acceptance test and project conclusion before February 28, 2018, and deliver relevant design documents, schematics, layouts, source codes and production process control documents. However, the defendant has not yet delivered as agreed. The above-mentioned breach of contract by the defendant has made it impossible for the plaintiff to achieve the purpose of the contract in question, and the plaintiff has the right to terminate the contract in question.

Since its establishment, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court has accepted three cases of integrated circuit layout design disputes. This is the first case involving integrated circuit layout design since the establishment of the court.

In April this year, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "Guidelines for Review and Enforcement of Integrated Circuit Layout Designs (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines") to strengthen the protection of exclusive rights to integrated circuit layout designs and improve the review of integrated circuit layout designs.