I am not an attorney, but have had occasion to research this with the help of a top intellectual property attorney. Please do not take anything said here as the final word – if you are thinking about doing reverse engineering get a legal opinion & more importantly make a business decision that it is worth the potential hassle. In answer to your question, here are a few examples to get you started – the comments below are brief (and of course only the portions that support our position!) A full reading of the rulings should be made to understand the context and full meaning; Atari Games v. Nintendo (Federal Circuit) -- found that intermediate copying of object code of a copyrighted computer program when necessary to disassemble the program to view its expression was a fair use under Section 107 of the copyright laws. When the nature of a work requires intermediate copying to understand the ideas and processes in a copyrighted work, that nature supports a fair use for intermediate copying. Thus, reverse engineering object code to discern the unprotectable ideas in a computer program is a fair use ….. the court commented on ... the constitutional objective of promoting "the Progress of Science" and concluding that necessary intermediate copies for object code reverse engineering are exempted from protection by fair use.... Sega v. Accolade (Ninth Circuit) -- Accolade disassembled entire programs written by Sega. .... The fact that an entire work was copied does not, however, preclude a finding of fair use. In fact, where the ultimate (as opposed to direct) use is as limited as it was here, the factor is of very little weight.” Even though reverse engineering to discover infringement often requires copying the entire program ..... Sony v. Connected (Ninth Circuit) -- the court considered the reverse engineering work engaged in during the creation of the product a "transformative" use of the initial copyrighted work, making it permissible according to copyright law. The court also held that multiple copying was not a factor in determining fair use copying. Similar court cases can be found which permit the reverse engineering of IC chip circuits. A no-reverse engineering clause in a license is not as clear (as if the above was!). To quote the summary we were provided; ..... courts are generally prohibited from enforcing “unconscionable” contract provisions. If a provision of a unilateral contract (such as a software license), which had not been previously negotiated and agreed to by both parti
