Protection procedure in Croatia

In the Republic of Croatia a topography protection procedure is carried out before the State Intellectual Property Office according to Act on the Protection of Topographies of Semiconductor Products and the Regulations on the Protection of Topographies of Semiconductor Products on the basis of the application as filed.

A topography application shall contain the data identifying the topography and drawings or photographs of layouts or of individual layers of the semiconductor products. The applicant may mark particular of the required data referred to in the application as a trade secret, in which case these parts shall not be made available to the public, except for the purposes of a possible litigation.

A topography application cannot be filed after the expiration of a period of two years as from the date on which the first commercial exploitation of the topography has started.

The rights of the owner of a protected topography shall come to an end upon expiration of a 10 year period from the earlier of the following: the end of the calendar year in which the first commercial exploitation of the topography has started anywhere in the world, or the end of the calendar year in which the application for the registration of the topography has been filed in due form.