EC Proposes Tit-for-Tat Chip Plan: The European...
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
EC Proposes Tit-for-Tat Chip Plan: The European Community’s executive body proposed a tit-for-tat measure that could allow EC companies to copy semiconductor designs of U.S. chip makers. The proposal by the EC Commission, which must be approved by the community’s 12 member nations, would drop protection of chip designs from non-EC countries that do not legally protect designs made within the EC. Unlike other non-EC countries--such as Austria, Japan and Sweden--that recognize and protect designs of chips made in the community, the United States protects only its own chip designs. “If they won’t respect our designs, we won’t respect theirs,” said an EC official who asked not to be named.
