At UBM TechInsights, we’re often tasked with proving patent infringement of a software algorithm as part of our IP Management Services. An embedded algorithm can range from a sensoring technique in an appliance, to motor control, to power management scheme, to navigation algorithm, to UI control or file system on a higher end embedded device; to name a few examples. Investigating a possible patent infringement is one of the few cases where reverse engineering software is legal in spite of any license agreement to the contrary.

An issue for projects of this nature is that most modern machine code is produced from C or C++, and the process of generating machine code by an optimizing compiler is very sophisticated. Therefore, looking at low-level (machine or assembly language) instructions is a cumbersome and error-prone way of ascertaining infringement.

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