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Chris McManes IEEE-USA
Supports Reverse Engineering WASHINGTON (04 June 2003) — IEEE-USA filed an amicus curiae brief Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of reverse engineering in the Baystate Technologies, Inc., vs. Howard L. Bowers (No. 02-1585) copyright case. In its brief, IEEE-USA stated that the Federal Circuit's decision in Bowers vs. Baystate Technologies, Inc., 320 F.3d 1317 (Fed. Cir. 2003) "creates substantial uncertainty as to whether copyright holders can unilaterally prohibit the long-standing, widely accepted and essential practice of reverse engineering." The brief asks the Court to review the lower court decision in that light. Glenn Tenney, chair of the IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Committee (IPC), said the protection of reverse engineering is of great importance. "The U.S. economy and our competitiveness internationally hinges upon the careful and closely negotiated balance that Congress built into federal intellectual property law," Tenney said. "It would be dangerous to allow software publishers to repeal the Copyright Act with a shrink wrap, simply because they don't like that balance. We sincerely hope that the Court will take up this important case." Reverse engineering is a common and recognized practice, particularly in computer software, and is extremely important to technological advancement. IEEE-USA defines reverse engineering as "the discovery by engineering techniques of the underlying ideas and principles that govern how a machine, computer program or other technological device works." (IEEE-USA 1997 Position Statement: www.ieeeusa.org/forum/positions/reverse.html). According to the IEEE-USA brief, "...many persons engage in reverse engineering to gain ideas about how to create competitive or complementary products." A copy of the brief, which was coordinated by IEEE-USA's IPC, and other relevant resources are available at www.ieeeusa.org/forum/policy/2003/Baystate060203.html . Andrew Greenberg and Matthew Conigliaro of Carlton Fields, P.A. of Tampa (www.carltonfields.com), prepared the brief pro bono for IEEE-USA, which was joined by the American Library Association, American Association of Law Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries. Jonathan Band of Morrison & Foerster, LLP of Washington, D.C., (http://www.mofo.com/index.cfm), represented the library associations. IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers created in 1973 to promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.
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