1. Ask Contractors to Sign NDA
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is the way of legal protection of your PCB design. It takes effect regardless of whether a contractor rapid-prototyped the design for your project or you brought your own design for manufacture.
What would be the consequences if a contractor attempted to copy the design anyway? It would not be possible for them to legalize their components. You also may sue them, and this way, no copied components will be allowed to enter the market. You’d also get compensation.
2. Do not Give Gerbers and BOM the Same Company
Gerbers are vector graphic files PCB blanks are made according to which. You may separate the manufacturing of your PCBs by giving Gerbers to one firm only. They will prepare and ship blanks to the second manufacturer.
The second firm must be given a bill of materials (BOM), i.e., the list of items (components) to create a product. The second company will be assembling your PCBs this way. So, both manufacturers do not have complete info about your PCB design and cannot speculate on its usage.
3. Contractors that Have Different Core Businesses will not Copy Your Design
The thing is that a company specializing in fabricating PCBs as per given Gerbers, BOMs, etc, simply is not capable of copying your design. They do not have appropriate equipment allowing DIY design PCBs on the industrial level. They do not have respective specialists either.
It’s not like you need to pick a manufacturing-focused firm in the first place. These just cannot fix your PCB design if something goes wrong. But outsourcing a portion of PCB production to a manufacturer without a design department is the right call.
4 Partner with Reliable Contractors
Most of PCB manufacturers, never risk their contracts. The brand image does not worth dubious financial profit from copying and releasing your PCBs as the product of themselves.
The only ones who may consider stealing the design are the half-legal PCB shops that both rapidly prototype and fabricate PCBs at low costs. They have design departments that may attempt to copy successful products or steal the designs of their clients and saturate the market of cheap electronics with it.
Watch closely to whom you trust your intellectual property. Read reviews about a chosen provider and pay attention to the level of their customer support as a notable indicator of trustworthiness.
5. Protect Your Intellectual property (IP)
It’s hardly possible to legally enter the market if a product is not legally registered. But this is possible only if it is approved to be an original product, i.e., Intellectual property (IP) was not stolen.
Ways here are copyright mark – protection of digital image (file) of your PCB design, trademark – protection of your PCBs themselves, and patent – protection of invention of your PCB design. Having each of those increases the chances that governmental organizations will not let counterfeit products enter the market.
6. Protect Your PCB from Reverse-Engineering
Reverse-Engineering is one of the ways of copying your PCB design. It would be used by manufacturers that do not produce components for you legally. Or by PCB enthusiasts as an option. So, you should make your PCB impossible to copy in such a manner. Here are the ways to do so:
- Just stick to multi-layers designs. It’s hard to argue that PCBs with more than 2 layers are way more difficult to reverse-engineer. The reason is that they have internal tracing that can hardly be copied. Engineers will have to guess about the exact location of tracks, which will lower the chances of successful reverse-engineering.
- Dip the PCB in silicone rubber. Such a way makes the board thicker but does not alter its electrical properties. It makes a PCB waterproof as well. The need to get rid of silicone rubber makes it more difficult and time-consuming to reverse-engineer a PCB.
- “Pot” the circuit board. There are potting compounds (different from silicone rubber), for example, butadiene rubber. It’s especially good for high-voltage circuits. It serves as a barrier against the effects of harsh environments and slows down cloning somewhat.