> Being able to download a brd file straight from the manufacturer, along with a list of probe points and Mouser links for ICs would surely make it much easier.
Don’t you think you’re asking for a bit much here? You’re asking for board layout in an easily digestible and copyable format. This is most definitely IP for the company and they should just give it away? This would be detrimental to the industry. Apple makes laptop, releases schematic, cheap chinese clones would be available within a few hours. I get that people want to repair their stuff, there’s nothing wrong with that, but when the path forward requires dismantling the entire IP protection system do we really want to push forward so Johnny Brokenwatch doesn’t have to buy a new Apple Watch?
There is no IP protection for schematics and pcb layout due to its utility function and mechanical generation (or something). Chip layout had to get separate considerations to be covered at all https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit_layout_desi...
But that is beside the point. I have full manufacturing board files (actual files that go into pick&place machine) for designs going as far back as ThinkPad 600X, yet you dont see Chinese made ThinkPad 600X clones.
Note that your wiki articles says it’s difficult to protect, not that it isn’t IP. Further, a quote from the article:
“ So since the 1990s, national governments have been granting copyright-like exclusive rights conferring time-limited exclusivity to reproduction of a particular layout.”
Where did you get these schematics? An individual, or even a small company, having these files is not the same as a large company. Also have you tried releasing a thinkpad clone? have we checked all chinese built laptops to ensure the IP isn’t already being used?
_chip layout_, this wiki article is about silicon, it got its own laws specifically to protect chip layout at the time Western believed they had the upper hand in the high end design engineering. PCB is free game everywhere except I think UK, but good luck fighting it in courts.
Not schematics, actual fab files you send to pcb manufacturer + ones you put in a pick&place machine to populate the board. From China, where else, most likely "backed up" by middle level worker to make extra $ on a side. Still no laptop straight clones despite 25 years worth of designs ready for the taking.
Lawyer telling you he can indeed take your money? I am shocked, sir :)
US copyright law does not protect the mechanical
or utilitarian aspects of works. You can draw a logo (trademark) and a funny animal (copyright) in copper layer on your pcb and try that, but otherwise you are boned.
Apple brds are already available if you know where to look and Chinese clone manufacturers have serious connections, so this would've happened already if it were feasible.
Again, schematics and PCB layout are not covered by neither copyright nor patents. This is the reason behind Apple, Commodore, IBM and others fighting clones with bios/firmware lawsuits.
Don’t you think you’re asking for a bit much here? You’re asking for board layout in an easily digestible and copyable format. This is most definitely IP for the company and they should just give it away? This would be detrimental to the industry. Apple makes laptop, releases schematic, cheap chinese clones would be available within a few hours. I get that people want to repair their stuff, there’s nothing wrong with that, but when the path forward requires dismantling the entire IP protection system do we really want to push forward so Johnny Brokenwatch doesn’t have to buy a new Apple Watch?