As I have said before its not really my field, but it would seem to me that scanning a chip is not necessarily violative of a the chip designers copyright. If I in fact own the chip it would seem that it would be a fair use for me to scan it to display it for sale or trade.

Even if it is violative of the chip designers rights, I don't think that prevents the establishment of copyright rights against all others. In the context of patent law I know that you can receive a patent for a product that has previously patented components.