This response comes from my husband who is an attorney.  It is a follow 
up to the copyright discussion from last week.


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Regarding whether copyright will protect the design of a PWB, the
answer is "it depends."  But first the disclaimer:  This is an off
the cuff answer to a theoretical question.  Do not treat it as
legal advice.  

As a general matter, copyright covers "original works of
authorship in a tangible medium of expression."  A creative
designer could use a PWB as a canvas for his or her artistic
efforts.  In that case, the PWB would be subject to copyright
protection because the board would be the expression of the
author's ideas.  But that is not much help to the industry.

A utilitarian PWB designed not for aesthetics but to a customer's
specs for a given product, presents a harder question.  To the
extent the designers make creative decisions in the path layout
that are _not_ dictated by engineering considerations, the board
could be subject to copyright protection.  If, however, the paths
are placed based on an algorithm designed to create the shortest
paths over the least surface area, with the least thermal
radiation, etc., the "expression" will have "merged" into the
design of the product and there will be no copyright.  This is why
things like the recipes, lists of ingredients and telephone
directories generally do not have copyright protection.

I will post this question to an on-line forum for copyright
lawyers and see if the answers are different.

Larry Friedman
Barnes Richardson and Colburn