Ownership should be straightforward. You design it, therefore, you own it. But that’s not always the case and many businesses have even ended up in a courtroom over this. Active EMS always ensures you retain all ownership rights to any PCB design we work on, which isn’t always the industry norm.
Design Support During PCB Assembly
It can be common for a PCB assembly partner to have some input into a design once it reaches production. Often the advice may simply be that a component is difficult to source or something in the layout may make assembly harder than it needs to be.
There can be a lot of variables but if a change makes the board easier to assemble at potentially less cost per unit then more often than not the design will change. The important thing is understanding what happens to ownership once those changes have been made.
Who Owns Changes Made to a PCB Design?
This is where businesses need to be clear about the arrangement they are entering into. If the design has changed then the supplier may have different terms around design work they contributed to.
That does not necessarily mean there will be a problem, but it is worth checking. Even a relatively small change can create a question over who owns the revised version of the design if this has never been agreed. Always be sure to agree ownership before design work begins.
Design Ownership and Future PCB Builds
Occasionally, this issue of not owning your design can surface years later. If your supplier retain rights over changes they made, they may also be working with other businesses in the same sector and applying similar design approaches elsewhere, depending on the terms you have agreed. For many businesses developing new products, that can be a serious issue.
We would always advise checking with your PCB assembly partner because even something like a component receiving an End of Life warning may require the design to change slightly to accommodate it. This way, if the design has to change later, you can continue working with that partner knowing the updated version is still yours and you are not creating an ownership issue each time the product develops.