Hi Jim,
In regards to the user manuals : In the domain of copyrights, abandonment is recognized as the explicit release of material by a copyright holder into the public domain. Publishing it on the internet for however short period of time can be considered such a release into the public domain. Once it is in the public domain you cannot retract it.
A number of websites offer the Brinks user manuals online.
Trade secrets - anyone may reverse engineer a product and thus discover (and copy and publish) all of its secrets, to the extent they are not protected by other laws
Found this interesting quote on:
Personally I believe the Brinks system looks remarkebly like a caddx keypad. The panic buttons are almost identical to a NX series keypad and the rest of the layout identical to a DL series keypad.
Arrowhead (USA) = Sentrol = Caddx = Moose = DAS = Scantronic (all GE owned)
Chubb used the Caddx DL series here in NZ exclusively but found that consumer legislation required them to disclose codes and that consumers had the right to demand an installer manual since they owned the alarm and an alarm is effectively useless without the ability to program it. The DL-100 was branded as the Chubb 1000 and DAS DL-100 in the manuals.The DL-300 as the Chubb 3000. (Probably due to a bit of Subtle pressure by the Ministry of Commerce they have abandoned "exclusive systems".)
The units were programmed using a "smart programmer". I have included a picture of the programmer that I own for the Chubb 3000 panel with comparison photos of the NX & brinks keypads. ( Brinks.jpg)
Of course the Brinks system is just a hybrid of other GE products and may even involve components sold elsewhere in the world under a different brand name. The system provides no specifically unique features that are not already available on other systems by other manufacturers. It is Patented for the ability to monopolize on the product. This is a deliberate breach of the anti trust laws and is considered Patent fraud.
Hence: WALKER, INC. v. FOOD MACHINERY, 382 U.S. 172 (1965)
ADT through one of its Authorised dealers (Protector systems) sold the ITI Simons panel in NZ as a "PROTECTOR ELITE". They now are replacing consumer owned installed locked out panels at their cost. (To avoid breaching the NZ Fair trading Act).
Hope this helps and good luck with your case. You may want to consider joining up with Brinks system owners and turning it into a serious multi million dollar anti trust case.