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How should you protect the intellectual property rights of printed circuit boards?

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I believe that as long as design-related people are very sensitive to the protection of intellectual property rights, especially those engaged in PCB design work, I think will pay more attention to the relevant protection because, on the one hand, they have to pay attention to competitors through reverse engineering to copy the use of our products, the other is to pay attention to the cooperation with the relevant PCB manufacturers to avoid the leakage of PCB design drawings and manufacturers of Theft. This requires the relevant designers to understand the relevant intellectual property protection. This article is through the PCB intellectual property protection law and details how we should be printed circuit board knowledge products to protect.

The design and manufacture of circuit boards will inevitably produce the following important drawings.

1. circuit schematic diagram.

2. PCB wiring diagrams of each layer.

3. Component arrangement diagram.

These three kinds of diagrams focus on the intellectual work of the circuit board, which is the essential product design drawings in the design and manufacture of such products, and the core intellectual property rights owned by the enterprise for such products.

Although the design principles used in the circuit and the functions achieved are not protected, the specific way to achieve these principles and functions is protected by intellectual property law. Of course, some of these generic stand-alone functional designs may not be protected. Still, some computer CPU manufacturers provide computer motherboard manufacturers with guiding rough design specifications for specific CPU motherboards, some of which are called public board designs and are copyrighted.

According to the Copyright Law on works, circuit schematics, circuit wiring diagrams, and component arrangement diagrams should belong to the product design drawings. The designer of these drawings shall enjoy the copyright of the drawings.

In addition to the above drawings, the circuit board manufacturing process will also produce some other drawings, such as circuit board size orientation, over-hole, solder hole diagrams, etc., which also belong to part of the product design drawings. Still, they are mainly derived from the above three types of drawings, mainly for the manufacturing process needs, alone reflect the intellectual labor is not much.

(B) Patent protection of technical solutions

The current patent law protects inventions, utility models, and designs. After theoretically examining the correspondence between the above three different types of inventions and printed circuit boards, a study concluded that it is difficult for the patent system to protect the layout design of printed circuit boards. 

1.Invention and creation around the board itself and the corresponding device

As the main body of the printed circuit board, the invention and creation proposed for the board itself, such as the optimization of the structure of the board, transformation, the board body to add, change the device, etc., to form a new board structure or the board body for innovative processing of the corresponding tools, where a certain technical problem is solved, can apply for a patent.

2.Inventions around circuit schematics

In circuit board production, the design of the circuit schematic is usually based on the functional requirements of electronic products, the design, and the division of each module of the board; the design process is essential to generate new technical solutions for the functional needs of the board. Therefore, the design process of the circuit schematic for a specific technical problem designed to form a specific module between the order of functional implementation, logical correspondence, the arrangement of electronic components, etc., can apply for a patent for the invention.

3.Inventions revolving around the realization of the circuit schematic on the board body

The process of circuit wiring diagram design, i.e., the process of circuit schematic design to be realized through the product line design, can be protected by patents for the technical problems identified, such as the wiring methods proposed to enhance the connection between components, improve integration, overcome mutual interference and electromagnetic compatibility between resistive components, etc. These problems also reflect the technical creativity of the designer and can be protected by patents. These issues also reflect the technical creativity of designers and can be protected by patents. 4.

4.Inventions around the subsequent procedures of product testing and waste disposal

After the production and processing of the product are completed, the quality requirements for precision require high-precision quality testing. The waste treatment process accompanying the production of printed circuit boards can also be technically optimized.

The printed circuit board wiring diagram is difficult to apply for a patent.

Generally speaking, there can be many kinds of specific electronic circuit wiring diagrams (PCB) to realize the technical scheme in the circuit schematic design. The printed circuit board layout design is only one way to realize the patented scheme. To realize the wiring according to the circuit schematic, the board size, the specific component size, the number of wiring layers, the interface, and other issues should be considered. In short, only the arrangement of electronic components conceived in the circuit schematic scheme transplanted to the insulated board is the implementation of the technical scheme on the circuit board, which does not have an independent product function, and therefore does not belong to the technical scheme itself, does not belong to the scope of protection of the patent for the invention.

5.Printed circuit board wiring diagrams separate from the schematic diagram cannot be protected by obtaining utility models or designs.

The Patent Law stipulates that the “utility model refers to a new technical solution for the shape, structure or combination of products suitable for practical use. A design is a new product design that is aesthetically pleasing and suitable for industrial application in terms of shape, pattern or combination thereof, as well as the combination of color and shape and pattern”. Printed circuit board layout design innovation is reflected in the realization of the circuit function, not in the product, structure, or combination, let alone in the shape of the product, pattern, or combination. Therefore, the printed circuit board wiring diagram does not belong to the scope of protection of utility models and design patents.

6.The technical solution embodied in the circuit schematic design process can be applied for patent protection for inventions.

The inventions protected by the current patent law include inventions, utility models, and designs, of which inventions and utility models are technical solutions. The so-called technical solutions are for the production and life of the specific technical problems that arise to achieve a certain technical effect of the specific idea. In circuit board production, the design of the circuit schematic is usually based on the functional requirements of electronic products and the design and division of the circuit board modules, so the design process is a new technical solution for the functional needs of the board. Therefore, the design process of the circuit schematic is designed for specific technical problems formed by the sequence of functional implementation between specific modules, logical correspondence, electronic components arrangement scheme, etc. can apply for a patent for the invention.

7.The solutions proposed in the process of printed circuit board wiring diagrams for specific technical problems have a wide scope of patent protection.

The process of circuit wiring diagram design, that is, the circuit principle into the product line design process for the technical problems identified in the technical solutions, can be protected by patents, such as overcoming mutual interference between resistors, electromagnetic compatibility, and other problems proposed by the wiring method, etc. However, these problems do not belong to the macroscopic problems of schematic design. However, the solution to these specific problems still reflects the designer’s Technical creativity and can apply for patent protection. For example, high-density interconnect printed circuit board technology in the conventional circuit board introduced blind, buried holes, fine lines, and wide line spacing, the ability to manufacture conventional multilayer board technology can not achieve the thin, multilayer, stable, high-density interconnect printed circuit boards.

(C) the technical program of trade secret protection

The protection of trade secrets can only provide very limited protection for printed circuit boards. According to the relevant provisions of the so-called trade secrets, it is not known to the public, has commercial value, and by the right to take appropriate confidentiality measures of technical information, business information, and other commercial information. Therefore, the primary condition of trade secrets is to have secrecy.

Some researchers believe that through the way of trade secrets can not provide effective protection for printed circuit boards. Through the development of their development or reverse engineering and other ways to obtain the trade secret is not recognized as an infringement of trade secrets. Therefore, when the product containing the printed circuit board is marketed, other production operators can buy the product from the open market and obtain the reverse engineering of the product’s layout design by disassembling and analyzing the product, resulting in the loss of secrecy. Therefore, the law against unfair competition can protect the circuit board layout design that is temporarily not public or business people do not think it is appropriate to disclose; this protection can play a positive role in the product development stage, but in the product market, the way trade secrets can not provide strong protection.  

Some industry insiders believe that printed circuit board products can be disassembled, can be observed, and other characteristics lead to the existence of competitors through reverse engineering to obtain design solutions to avoid the possibility of trade secret infringement, but through the way of trade secrets to protect the printed circuit board is not feasible, the need for the accused infringer to assume the burden of proof of the reverse engineering defense. Of course, the alleged infringer to bear the burden of proof before the claim that the infringing party to bear the burden of proof of its technical information constitutes a trade secret and two programs substantially the same, limited to the limits of this article no longer discuss this, for the characteristics of the printed circuit board products, here only the reverse engineering defense of the burden of proof to explore.

The industry believes that the manufacturers concerned, as long as a good confidentiality measure, the alleged infringing party reverse engineering defense still need to bear the corresponding burden of proof is not easy, rather than reverse engineering the feasibility of non-infringement defense, that is, the alleged infringing party can not be because the printed circuit board, in reality, the possibility of reverse engineering and exempt from the actual implementation of whether the reverse engineering to obtain the corresponding technical The burden of proof of the program.

At present, the laws of many countries have positive provisions on what “reverse engineering” “the preceding paragraph refers to ‘reverse engineering,’ refers to the disassembly, mapping, analysis, etc., of the product, obtained from public sources through technical means and obtain the relevant technical information of the product. Obtain the relevant technical information of the product.” Therefore, for the claim of reverse engineering defense, the accused infringing party needs to bear the following burden of proof: (1) need to prove its purchase of products from public channels, such as the purchase of product invoices, etc.; (2) its reverse engineering, that is, disassembly, mapping, analysis and other processes recorded in the document, such records of the technical content of the document should be able to directly show or reasonably infer the technical content of the right holder’s trade secrets.

The first aspect of the burden of proof is relatively easy, and the second aspect is for the printed circuit board. This product also seems easy, but there are greater difficulties. This is highlighted in the circuit design, often involving many electrical parameters; the adjustment of these parameters is often directly related to the normal function of the circuit board to achieve. Some of these parameters are directly marked on the schematic diagram, and some can not be marked. For these parameters are not marked, the rights holder can claim to constitute its trade secrets, and the alleged infringing party needs to prove that through disassembly, mapping, analysis, etc., to obtain the above parameters, there are greater difficulties because these parameters are often designers in the evaluation of the printed circuit board production test process after the comprehensive determination of the indicators, the industry does not have a unified standard and a certain rule, reflecting the richness of the designer Experience and depth of creation.

Therefore, the printed circuit board in the design, and production process, manufacturers to strictly limit the scope of dissemination of confidential information, and technical personnel to sign a confidentiality agreement, encryption of documents containing important parameters, the confidential machine or plant strictly limit visits and other measures, for the future may appear to infringe on trade secrets litigation well prepared. 

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Anpllopcb is an emerging company with PCB design and manufacturing that respects its customers’ intellectual property. If you need a related business, you can work with us. In addition, if you want to learn more about protecting intellectual property rights related to PCB products, you can continue reading “About how to protect other intellectual property rights of printed circuit boards.”

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