Sixteen Years after the Passage of the U.S. Semiconductor Chip Protection Act: Is International Protection Working

Sixteen years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act ("SCPA") in an attempt to provide national protection from chip piracy to U.S. chip manufacturers and encourage international efforts to reduce chip piracy worldwide. In this Article, the author evaluates the SCPA's effectiveness. The author concludes that the Act has influenced foreign legislation and international treaty provisions, but has provided virtually no real chip protection. Instead, technological advances, market changes, and improvements in industry practice have protected chip manufacturers from chip piracy. Before reaching his conclusion, the author describes the origins of the SCPA and gives an overview of the Act, including general provisions and a criticism of the protected subject matter's scope. The author then compares foreign chip protection acts and international chip provisions with the SCPA, arguing that worldwide chip piracy has declined mostly for reasons unrelated to foreign chip legislation. While changes in technology and the market have mostly rendered chip protection laws obsolete in technologically advanced nations, the author concludes by hinting that such laws might be helpful in less technologically developed nations.