im sure the reference design is copywritten if i added two components and removed the GPIO breakouts and switches and led is that in any way not ok? i know nothing on RF signals or antenna design but id like to keep the form factor as small as the beacon kit.
in my searching i found this post where the nordic employee states "f your device doesn't look exactly the same as the nRF51822 Development Kit, you would need to do the RF-PHY retest. FCC, CE are needed as well since it's not covered in the Bluetooth QDL." this leads me to believe that the files are allowed to be adopted and built upon without any infringement