Commencement and duration of protection

(1) The protection of a layout-design under this Act shall commence, (a) on the date of the first commercial exploitation, anywhere in the world, of the layout-design by, or with the consent of, the right holder, provided that an application for protection is filed by the right holder with the Registrar within the time limit referred to in section 8(3) of this Act; or (b) on the filing date accorded the application for the registration of the layout-design filed by the right holder if the layout design has not been previously exploited commercially anywhere in the world. 10 (2) The protection of a layout-design under this Act shall terminate ten calendar years after the date of commencement thereof.