That is still true but they should still give you the info. Hell, if a company is out of business like that maybe the designs should be made open (if they have been out of business for a defined time that I can't define) so that if some other company want's to spin a fab they can if they are willing to pay for it. I don't see a downside for that.
If we can get all of the niggers out of our way we could have at-home chipfab that would be good enough for a lot of the "older" stuff that you could just DIY.
There's a lot to overcome beyond just this one battle he's fighting. It's ingrained in the whole industry and is going to take some nukes to loosen things up. Unfortunately, companies like crisco and juan deere have lots of money and what they're throwing at lawmakers is pocket change compared to the fleecing they give their customers.
I think my new project is going to be hating myself as much as possible for the next decade where I try to make extremely low-entry chip-fab as easy as early-day DIY 3d-printing. There are probably already people working on this.
Also, I don't fucking care about patents or IP. With the "AI" we have I will just say "The AI helped me design it". Now the IP/Patent will be tossed out since that seems to be the default right now.
That would be cool...make a chip as easy as you make a PCB. Take some pre-made stuff (need an op-amp, a NOR gate, and a couple of switches?) and run it, or make your own.
I've seen some of the first bursts of that, but we're a ways off. I hope I get to see it.
What might happen then is OpenAI or whoever will claim ownership if you create something that generates millions in revenue.