China has revised its intellectual property regulations to redefine "integrated circuits" without limiting them to semiconductor materials, a change explained in an expert opinion published by the National Intellectual Property Administration. The move, attributed to legal scholar Guo He of Renmin University, is designed to extend patent and design protections to emerging photonic and quantum chip technologies that traditional semiconductor-based definitions did not clearly cover. This matters because it broadens the scope of what China's IP law can protect as chip technology evolves beyond conventional silicon-based designs.

The revised rules primarily aim to strengthen protections for chip "layout" designs—the proprietary arrangement of components on a die—extending these safeguards to optical and quantum chips, and are intended to help resolve patent disputes and confirm the origins of chip designs. Guo framed the change as evidence China is no longer "conservative" on intellectual property, though The Register notes existing international standards, such as the WIPO's TRIPS agreement, already use broad language that could plausibly cover such technologies. The changes are linked to Beijing's wider push for self-sufficiency in chip design and manufacturing, benefiting domestic firms such as Alibaba, Huawei, Cambricon and Loongson by shielding their designs from copying.