– Law No. 19.039 published in the Official Gazette of January 25,1991, modified by Law No. 19.996, published in the Official Gazette of March 11, 2005, in force as of December 1, 2005 and amended by Law No. 20.160, in force as of January 26, 2007.
– Decree No. 236 of December 1, 2005, on Regulation Rules of Law No. 19.039, modified by Laws No. 19.996 and 20.160.

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since June 25, 1975.
– WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), including Trade in Counterfeit Goods, since January 2000. Implementation thereof to internal legislation by Law No. 19.996.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since August 30, 2016.

Applicant: the inventor or his legal assignee whether an individual or a corporation. 

Foreigners and nationals not living in Chile: have the same rights as nationals residing in the country, but they must be represented by a resident patent attorney. 

Protection of foreigners: the same as for nationals. 

Definitions: Integrated Circuit means a product, in its final form or an intermediate form, in which the elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or all of the interconnections are integrally formed in and/or on a piece of material and which is intended to perform an electronic function. Topography means the three-dimensional disposition, however expressed, of the elements, prepared for its manufacturing. 

Kind of protection: registration. 

Conditions for registration: layout designs (topographies) must be original in the sense that they are the result of their creators’ own intellectual effort and are not commonplace among creators of layout designs (topographies) and manufacturers of integrated circuits at the time of their creation. A layout design (topography) that consists of a combination of elements and interconnections that are commonplace shall be protected only if the combination, taken as a whole, fulfills the conditions referred to before.

Novelty: topographies must be new; it is new if it has not been commercialized prior to two years before the date of filing the application.

Preliminary examination: a first examination on formal regularity of the application is carried out by the Office before the filing of the application. 

Examination: is carried out by Patent Office Examiners on originality of the topography.

Publication: an abstract of the application must be published in the Official Gazette after a preliminary examination is completed. 

Opposition: can be filed within a period of forty-five days from the date of publication.

Rendering of evidence: within a term of forty-five days from notification, which can be extended by another thirty days

Duration: ten years, from the date of filing of the application, or of the first commercial exploitation in any part of the world.

Marking: protected goods or their envelopes must bear the symbol T in a circle. Omission of this requirement does not affect the validity of the right, but those who fail to meet this provision will not be able to execute criminal legal actions against infringers. 

Cancellation actions: (a) when the person who has obtained the registration is not the inventor or his legal assignee; (b) when the registration was based on Examiner’s report that was wrong or obviously deficient; and (c) when the privilege is granted in violation of the provisions registrability.

Registration rights: the owner of a topography of an integrated circuit shall enjoy the exclusive right for producing, selling and marketing in any way the object of protection. Specifically, the following acts are submitted to the consent of the right holder (i) act of reproducing, whether by incorporation in an integrated circuit or otherwise, a protected layout design (topography) in its entirety or any part thereof, except the act of reproducing any part that does not comply with the requirement of originality referred to in the law; (ii) selling, or otherwise distributing for commercial purposes a protected layout design, an integrated circuit in which a protected layout design is incorporated, or an article incorporating such an integrated circuit only in so far as it continues to contain an unlawfully reproduced layout design. 

Acts not requiring the authorization of the right holder: (i) acts performed by a third party for private purposes or for the sole purpose of evaluation, analysis, research or teaching; (ii) acts referred to a topography complying with the requirement of originality which has been created on the basis of evaluation or analysis of the protected layout design (topography); (iii) acts referred to before in respect of an integrated circuit incorporating an unlawfully reproduced layout design or any article incorporating such an integrated circuit where the person performing or ordering such acts did not know and had no reasonable ground to know, when acquiring the integrated circuit or article incorporating such an integrated circuit, that it incorporated an unlawfully reproduced layout design. Notwithstanding, after the time that such person has received sufficient notice that the layout design was unlawfully reproduced, that person may perform any of the acts with respect to the stock on hand or ordered before such time, but shall be liable to pay to the right holder a sum equivalent to a reasonable royalty such as would be payable under a freely negotiated license in respect of such a layout design; (iv) identical original layout design (topography) that was independently created by a third party. 

Infringements: a criminal suit may be brought before the courts. In addition, Law No. 19.912 enacted on November 4, 2003, modifies the Intellectual Property Legislation according to TRIPS rules, incorporating border measures, which definitively improves enforcement in Chile. Finally, Law No. 19.996 protects registration rights not only by criminal prosecutions, but also by civil suits, and allows the owner of the right to start injunctions proceedings. 

Penalties: fines for fiscal benefit; handing over of the infringer’s goods, devices and elements used for the infringement to the right owner; and payment of costs and damages to the right owner.