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Re: Reverse Engineer
"Bill Olson (EDP)" writes:
: Reverse engineering is process of 'mimicking' the specifications of
: another product by copying the 'abstract interface' of it. Example:
:
: I write a desktop application that greatly increases employee
: productivity, and it sells like hotcakes. Another company decides that I
: am gaining too much market share with my product and decides to reverse
: engineer the product so that they can create a competing product. They
: hire an engineer who takes the program and analyzes the input and output
: with a detailed script of test patterns (heaven forbid he might even
: decompile the program and snoop). By doing so, he now has a complete
: product specification minus the implementation (i.e. how it works). He
: then takes the product specification and gives it to another engineer
: (actually it's done through 'clean' liaisons) who then creates a product
: that does the exact same thing as mine--but with a different
: implementation process. Because the product copies the specification and
: not the implementation, it does not infringe on copyrights or patents.
Good explanation. But note that reverse engineering is not a way of
getting around patent violations. It only works to protect oneself from
copyright violations, since a reverse-engineered product is not
(arguably) a copy of the original. It is also useful when the actual
workings of the original, or the way the original is made, is a (trade)
secret.
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
Internet: [email protected] [email protected]