Jim,
     
     Are you referring to the customer/manufacturer side or the printed circuit 
     board vendor side?
     
     From the manufacturer side, I've seen tons of paperwork go out to board 
     vendors with "copyright" on them.  These could be schematics, functional 
     specs, artwork layout.  Here are some situations that I present only for 
     thought.
     
     
     1.   A company supplies the schematic and artwork layout informing the 
          printed circuit board vendor exactly how to make the board.
     
     OR,
     
     2.   A company supplies only the schematic to a printed circuit board
          vendor and says "We don't care about layout or how you make the PCB."
     
     OR,
     
     3.   A company supplies only functional specs for electrical
          inputs/outputs, and mechanical dimensions to a pcb vendor and says 
          "We don't care the electronic design, schematics, nor how you make 
          it. Just have it do what we want."
     
     Doug McKean
     ADC Video Systems
     
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: PCB Copyright
Author:  [log in to unmask] at internet-mail 
Date:    4/17/96 8:25 AM
     
     
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