When we Clone IC Layout Design , infringer does not dispute the validity of the property owner layout design proprietary rights, but it believes that the non-SRAM portion of its controlled layout design is not copied, There are also differences compared to property owner’s line connection between the SRAM unit and the rest of the chip.
Therefore, the layout design is not substantially similar to the original layout design and therefore does not constitute infringement. property owner also acknowledges that the SRAM portion of its layout design accounts for only 80% of the entire integrated circuit layout design, while the rest is not replicated by infringer, and it also acknowledges the difference in line connections between the SRAM cell and the rest of the chip pointed out by infringer, but property owner believes that there is still a large similarity between the two line connections, and this similarity is far greater than the difference.
At the same time, property owner believes that according to the substantive similarity theory of copyright, if the substantive part of the protected work is copied, even if there is a difference between the two works, the tort liability can’t be waived. Similarly, for IC layout design, the establishment of infringement does not require all parts of the protected layout design to be replicated. If the substantive part of the IC layout design is cloned, it also constitutes infringement.