This is not legal advise, contact an attorney.  That said. . . there are 
essentially two issues Copyright and Patent:

Copyright
my understanding is that copyright requires original authorship, original 
expression (not necessarily artistic, i.e. software), captured in a tangible 
medium.

Patent
my understanding is that patent requires unique, new, and useful function

Either of these, if applicable could be used to charge someone for making 
copies.  The best place to go for an answer to these questions would be the 
legal forum on CompuServe.

Best regards,

Timothy L. Turner, C.P.M.
Buying Specialist
Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.




 ----------
From: TechNet-request
To: TechNet
Subject: PCB Copyright
Date: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 8:50AM

I'm a participant in TECHNO-L, an e-news mailing list regarding
intellectual property and technology transfer.  I posted a "simple"
question there which is still being debated, and someone suggested I post
it to your list which he says is the list for PCB designers and
fabricators.

The question is, can the design of printed circuit board be copyrighted,
and royalties charged for each copy produced?  Note that I'm talking PCBs,
not microcircuits which can be protected as a Mask Work. Most respondents
in TECHNO-L have concluded that it is not possible to protect the design
because only artistic expression (and not utility) can be protected by
copyright.  However, one respondent reported that Israel courts have
concluded that a PCB design is protectable under copyright.

I'm sure you've hashed this over years ago.  If someone would be so kind as
to enlighten our group, and if possible point us toward an archive of the
discussion (if it exists), we'd be very grateful.  Thank you.

 --
James R. ("Jim") Palmer
Licensing Executive
Office of Technology Transfer
Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee