– Layout Designs Act 1994, No 116 of November 25, 1994.
– Layout Designs Amendment Act 1999, No. 123 of October 14, 1999.
– Layout Designs (Eligible Countries) Order 2000 (2000/237).

Filing: not required; eligible layout designs are automatically protected.

Eligible layout design: original layout design made by a national of, or first commercially exploited in, New Zealand or an eligible foreign country.

Layout design: the three-dimensional disposition, however expressed, of the elements, at least one of which is an active element, and some or all of the interconnections, of an integrated circuit, and includes such a three-dimensional disposition prepared for an integrated circuit intended for manufacture.

Eligible foreign countries: Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau (China), Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands (and the Caribbean Netherlands), Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Türkiye, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (and the Isle of Man), United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Nature of rights: exclusive rights to copy the layout design, directly or indirectly, in a material form; to make an integrated circuit in accordance with the layout design or a copy of the layout design; and to exploit the layout design commercially in New Zealand.

Owner of rights: unless an agreement altering ownership is made (1) maker of the eligible layout design; or (2) a person commissioning the making of a layout design for valuable consideration, and the layout design is made in carrying out that commission. An employer becomes owner where an eligible layout design is made by an employee under a contract of service or apprenticeship.

Duration of LD rights: fifteen calendar years after the year in which the layout design was made, but if the layout design is first commercially exploited during the first five years following the year in which the layout design was made, ten calendar years after the year of the first commercial exploitation.

Innocent infringers: LD rights are not infringed by a person who commercially exploits or authorizes commercial exploitation of an unauthorized integrated circuit, if the person did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that the integrated circuit was unauthorized.

Marking: is prima facie evidence that any person dealing with a layout design or an integrated circuit made according to a layout design has notice of LD rights in that layout design.

Prescribed label: affixed to layout design or integrated circuit made according to layout design, specifying that LD rights subsist in the layout design, the country and year in which the layout design was first commercially exploited, and the maker of the layout design.