page 47
- manufacturing, importing, offering for sale, selling or using the product;
- holding this product with a view to offering it for sale, selling it or using it.
Article 236: Certificate holders shall also be entitled to assign or bequeath the layout design
of integrated circuits and to sign licensing contracts.
Article 237: Holders of certificates for the layout designs of integrated circuits shall be
entitled to institute judicial proceedings with the competent judge against any
person who counterfeits a certificate for the layout design of integrated circuits,
performing without their consent any of the acts which are mentioned in Article
235 or which make it likely that counterfeiting will occur.
Section 2. Protection and limitation of the rights conferred by certificates for layout
designs of integrated circuits
Article 238: The protection provided for under this Law shall be granted whether or not the
integrated circuit in which the protected layout design is incorporated is itself
incorporated in an article. Subject to the provisions of Article 239, the protection
shall imply that the following acts are illegal if they are accomplished without
the holder’s authorization:
- reproduction, whether it be via incorporation in an integrated circuit or in
another fashion, of the entirety of a protected integrated circuit or any part
thereof, unless this involves the reproduction of a part that does not meet the
requirement of originality laid down in Articles 219 and 223;
- the import, sale or distribution in any manner, for commercial purposes, of
the protected layout of an integrated circuit in which the protected layout
design is incorporated or of an article incorporating such an integrated circuit
insofar as it continues to contain an unlawfully reproduced layout design.
Article 239: The effect of the protection conferred on a layout design under this Law shall
not cover:
- reproduction of the protected layout design for private purposes or for the
sole purposes of evaluation, analysis, research or teaching;
- incorporation, in an integrated circuit, of a layout design created on the basis
of such an analysis or evaluation and itself featuring an originality as per
Articles 219 and 223, or the performance, in relation to this layout design, of
any of the acts referred to in Article 238;
- performance of any of the acts referred to in Article 238, paragraph 2, if such
an act is performed in relation to a protected layout design, or an integrated
circuit in which such a layout design has been incorporated, which has been
placed on the market in Burundi by the holder or with his consent, leading to
the exhaustion of his rights;