Reverse-engineering is a term that is used for the process of

taking apart something to figure out how to use it, basically.

In many cases, something new and great has come about from it.

In order to understand how it works or to recreate it,

engineers will pull it apart and study it. Understanding how it

works is one thing. But in order to recreate it, they will have

to make it different somehow. This can be challenging but is

often necessary. Reverse-engineering is quite a fantastic, but

a worrisome way to learn new things.

The task that is difficult in reverse-engineering is the task

of making what is in such a way that it will no longer be the

same. The fear that is involved has to do with the fact that

patent information can be quite sensitive. Copying a product

that is under a patent is highly illegal. But, if they can

figure out how to use it and make it in a different method, it

may fall into the gray area. What is important to remember,

though, is that the patent is on the functionality of a

product, not necessarily on the way it is designed.

Reverse-engineering is something that has happened the most

often by the military. In this case, the reverse-engineering

will be used to copy other nation’s technology when it comes to

military endeavors. In many cases, the information is obtained

by intelligence operations. Reverse-engineering was most

commonly used in the Cold War and World War II.

You will find that reverse engineering also happens as a result

of curiosity; seeing if they can do it, so to speak. It is also

used as a means of cracking the code of security measures and

finding a way to get around the security restrictions that can

be found in such things as software and electronics. It is

quite possibly quite illegal to do these things though and this

needs to be taken into consideration.