Enforcing Reverse Engineering Prohibitions in Shrink- and Click-wrap Licenses: A Report on Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc.

The practice of "reverse engineering," whereby one company obtains the product of a competitor and works backwards "to divine the process which aided in its development or manufacture," has long been accepted as a legitimate (and sometimes wholly necessary) practice in the computer software marketplace. <i>Kewanee Oil Co. v Bicron Corp.</i>, 416 U.S. 470, 476 (1974).

18 minute readMay 01, 2003 at 02:10 PM
By
William S. Coats, Monte M.F. Cooper,
Mark J. Shean
Enforcing Reverse Engineering Prohibitions in Shrink- and Click-wrap Licenses: A Report on Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc.

The practice of “reverse engineering,” whereby one company obtains the product of a competitor and works backwards “to divine the process which aided in its development or manufacture,” has long

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