The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering

Abstract

This is a broader definition than has previously been used by courts and commentators, but it captures how the term is used in this Article."Human-made artifacts" are objects that embody knowledge or know-how previously discovered by other people.Hence, the engineering required to uncover the knowledge is "reverse" engineering.As we shall see, extraction of this knowledge can be costly or cheap, time-consuming or fast, depending on the artifact, and these notions govern the consequences of allowing it to be extracted.The standard legal definition, from Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp., 416 U.S. 470 (1974), is "starting with the known product and working backward to divine the process which aided in its development or manufacture."Id. at 476.Professor Reichman conceives of this knowledge as applied scientific or industrial knowhow.

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