Re [sdiy]: commercial use of other peoples boards (was: Should I

[Neil Johnson]

Hi,

As I see it there are two issues here.

1/ Buying a PCB, stuffing it and incorporating it into a product you want to sell

That is perfectly fine - you have paid for the PCB, it is yours to do with what you want.  So building it into a case and selling it as a product in its own right is fine, even with your name on the front.  You have not copied it, you have not violated any trademarks, you have not infringed anyone's patents.

2/ Buying a PCB, copying it and selling the copies

That is clearly infringing the copyright in the PCB artwork.  You cannot do this unless you have the permission of the rights holder.


As an example, suppose 'Joe' buys my Jen SX1000 MIDI kit.  Fine, I've made my money, they get a populated PCB.  If they then offer a service to install it in someone's synth, thats fine.  If they sell it on, perhaps via eBay, that's fine.  If they install it into a Jen and then sell that on, that's fine.

What is not fine, indeed illegal, is to copy the board and firmware and then sell those copies.  That clearly falls under copyright infringement and I can exert my rights as the copyright owner to force them to stop.

Also, if they pretend to be me, then that too is illegal - its 'passing off' (or 'palming off' in the USA).

Anyway, anyone contemplating starting up a business proper and having such legal questions is strongly advised to speak to a solicitor/lawyer rather than rely on the advice of a bunch of synth geeks :)

As for Dan's situation, I would say his added value (i.e., what he is being paid for) is in him doing the building work for his customer, so buying in modules and/or PCBs should be OK.

Neil

--
http://www.njohnson.co.uk

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