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Is Reverse Engineering Misappropriation of Trade Secrets?
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Reverse engineering refers to the process of working backward from an available product to understand what its parts are, how it functions, and/or how it was made. California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act does not provide an explicit definition of “reverse engineering,” but Texas’ counterpart helpfully defines it as "the process of studying, analyzing, or disassembling a product or device to discover its design, structure, construction, or source code." Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 134A.002(5). While it may seem like reverse engineering a product to develop a competing product is skirting the law, readers may be surprised to learn that it is not – with some caveats.
In a recent article published in The Daily Journal, attorneys Katie Prescott and Autumn Wu discuss the legality of reverse engineering from a trade secrets perspective.
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