반도체집적회로 배치설계의 업무상 창작자 지위 인정과 종업원 보상에 대한 소고

Article 5 of the Act on the Layout-Designs of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits provides that “With respect to a layout-design by a person employed by a government, a corporation, an association or other employer (hereinafter referred to as “corporation, etc”), the corporation, etc. is deemed to be the creator, unless otherwise provided in an agreement or an employment regulation and the like”. Pursuant to this provision, the position as a creator is in principle vested in the employer of the person who created the layout-design in service. Accordingly, the employer can own a right to the layout-design created in service and also exercise the right; however, no compensation is given to the employee who actually created the layout-design, only based on the laws associated with the semiconductor layout-design protection. This is compared with layout-designs created in national research & development (R & D) projects. In national R & D protects, if, as the R & D output, a layout-design is registered and accordingly a layout-design is established, the researcher who created the layout-design can receive compensation based on the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Promotion Acct and the Regulations on Management of National Research and Development Projects. Recently, it has been noted that the number of layout-design registrations by large companies has been reduced; conversely, that of layout-design registrations by the colleges and universities has increased. Considering structure and specialty of the semiconductor industry, it appears that it is necessary to induce those companies being of great importance in the semiconductor industry to increase the number of layout-design registrations. In this connection, it is seen that, if the Act on the Layout-Designs of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits is improved to recognize the employee who created the layout-design in service as a creator of the layout-design and to compensate him/her for the creation, the availability of the Act on the Layout-Designs of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits by the semiconductor companies would be enhanced. For this Paper, I have reviewed the laws and regulations to protect the layout-designs of the semiconductor integrated circuits by each country, based on whether the position as a creator of the layout-design created in service is vested in the employer. In addition, I have reviewed whether compensation can be given to the employee who actually performed the act of creating a layout-design if the layout-design was created in service, and whether it is necessary to revise Article 5 of the Act on the Layout-Designs of Semiconductor Integrated Circuits.