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