i think that's a shitty argument to try to devalue your work
is this something spread by management to reduce pay? the data sheet quip
actually they can see who uses it, if its interesting try to look you up, to see which company uses it, and which company it works for, even if its totally easy. it can sure give a lot of insight to how a company actually does its process.
it used to be a smart guy saying "i suspect that this company might try to use this" and now a complete buffoon can go "this company uses this, I have proof". With 0 work.
with how transparent journals and the internet is you can make neat documents that tell you what circuits a particular research group is using.
if you wanna value your work properly, its that you determined that this off the shelf circuit works for X, and your the only guy that knows for sure, even if your skill is that you can understand a data sheet enough to make a PCB from it. People say things are obvious but usually its not a independent appraisal, its the guy that has thought about a problem for hours, to the point of being bored with it.
and china has certain parts. some people there might make a spreadsheet of cheap parts, and search for circuits to steal that have equivalents for those parts. No idea about the end goal, they just need to know if their material will work and if there is a market.
then people say its trivial. if you actually try to do it yourself, you realize its a full time job, and have data bases of pilfered information is invaluable towards deciding WHAT to counterfeit or which market to enter based on the cross referenced resources that you have.
then suddenly someone with this kind of insider information can make use of parts that have a heavy surplus in a efficient manner in direct competition with the market at the right time. the power of a data base.