Copying the design of Espressif ESP32 Modules

[ignisuti]

The ESP32 Modules are designed by Espressif and provided to us at low cost so that we can quickly and easily jump into a design that has already been pre-certified.

1.) Does Espressif promote/encourage us to take their module designs and implement them directly into our own hardware? i.e. Do we have permission to do this?
2.) If we do this, are our boards automatically certified as well, or do we need to go through the certification process to be 100% compliant with the law?

[ignisuti]

Can anyone comment on this?
Does Espressif monitor this forum? It is THEIR forum...

[Sprite]

I'm not on the hardware or legal team, but I don't think hardware designs are copyrightable to begin with. I doubt we would have an issue with you copying it either. I am decently sure you need to certify them yourself, though, as the PCB fab process may differ to the ones we use.

[ignisuti]

Thanks! Just want to make sure I'm doing everything by-the-book.

It makes sense to me that Espressif would want to encourage people to use as much of their designs as possible.