Computer part copyright?

[Jermithy]

I have what I think is a good idea of a good design for a computer that could be mass produced. What I was wondering, was for brands like Dell and HP who make stock computers, do they have to get permission from the different part brands to use their parts?

 

[COLGeek]

The OEMS have agreements with suppliers to purchase standard items (video cards, CPUs, SSDs, HDDs, etc).

This is not really a permissions relationship. What Dell/HP/etc copyright are the names of product lines and any proprietary features/products they develop,

 

[Infikiran]

Not necessarily. You can build tons of custom PCs with whatever parts you want and sell them, but like COLGeek said OEMs have supplier agreements, which basically means they buy bulk a lot cheaper than the average home PC builder.

If you get a business license and want to freelance at home you can look into wholesale, but you have to buy tons of product upfront. So I would research before you get started. Good luck to you

 

[Jermithy]

What does OEM mean?

 

[C12Friedman]

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is a company that makes a part or subsystem that is used in another company's end product.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Basically all laptops are manufactured in Taiwan or China by (ODM) Original Design manufacturers. Foxconn is a famous in the news a few years ago for their child labor practises. Dell and the major OEM will design the laptop and they are manufactured by the ODM's (Compal, Quanta, Wistron and Pegatron to name few)

As you can see Dell and Apple use alot of the same ODM's. Clevo is a ODM that makes sort of barebones laptop with case and motherboard and the brand with small boutique laptop companies like Sager. Sager then adds memory and hardrives and since they make gaming machine buyers sometimes can select from multiple graphics cards. Clevo also sales unbranded machines to like Xoticpc and they had components just like Sager.

Also the biggies like HP and Dell you can go online and configure what components you want. But the models at Best Buy their are agreements with the OEM's that they can't do pre-purchase modifications but they can do Geek Squad post purchase but you basically have to buy the part at retail and pay the labor costs.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laptop_brands_and_manufacturers

 

[orlbuckeye]

Also those big OEM's have to support the PC so the parts inventory is important part of doing business. Also for support mgmt they keep the replacement parts consistent throughout the model of the laptop. They have to purchase the parts they don't get permission to use. Not sure any business would want to have to give permission before people could purchase their products. Being able to copyright computer part would cause the price of computer to go up.