1204.2 Originality
A mask work must be original to be protectable. The House Report on the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 provides that a mask work is “original” if it is the independent creation of an author and was not copied from another source. H.R. REP. NO. 98-781, at 17 (1984). The mask work cannot consist solely of “designs that are staple, commonplace, or familiar in the semiconductor industry, or variations of such designs, combined in a way that, considered as a whole, is not original.” 17 U.S.C. § 902 (B) (2).