[pravda]

>Why couldn't the actual design of a PCB be copyrighted,

Don't worry, it is!

Schematics are copyrighted as well.

But someone can take your schematic, lay out their own board, and produce a exact equivalent of your circuit, using all the same components.

[segfaultbuserr]

Note that it cannot, theoretically, completely stop someone from producing a device with an identical layout. Since only the expression is protected, not the idea or system, theoretically, if your layout is the only reasonable layout to implement the circuit in question, it's legal for someone else to ignore your layout's copyright status and produce an identical copy of it.

For example, some special RF and analog devices require special layout techniques to ensure their proper operations. It must have a copper pour at this location, and it must have a guard ring at that location, etc., to achieve its tested performance. If you are able to argue the layout in question is the only reasonable layout to implement the circuit, the layout is not copyrightable in general. And in RF planar circuit it's even weirder - the layout itself is the circuit [0]. If the layout in question is the only reasonable implementation of the circuit (you cannot make a hairpin filter with an identical frequency response unless it looks like the original hairpin filter), it's not copyrightable.

While it's not legal to copy the entire board, copy a small subsection is possible.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planar_transmission_line

[jbay808]

This should be higher up.

PCBs are considered more like artwork.

[TaylorAlexander]

As someone who just spent today bringing up a PCB of my own design, I do not want this. I think intellectual property restrictions are harmful for innovation, the environment, and the economy. But don't take my word for it, listen to this 16 year old who has been running an electronics repair business since they were 12:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SZrGm3ZqQU

[tonyarkles]

IANAL, but if that’s true now it’s because copyright law has changed. In the past that wasn’t the case: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer_clone

[wgj]

None of the examples there involve directly copying PCBs.