It has been an active research area for decades. Many promises have been made, often accompanied by much marketing hype. There has, however, been a recurring problem with delivery of anything that actually works in the real world.Originally Posted by manasij7479
More generally, however, there is a legally enforceable concept of "Intellectual Property". Reverse engineering tends to infringe upon legally enforceable Intellectual Property rights of whoever designed the system being reverse engineered, even if you are only reverse engineering an interface. Patents are just one type of intellectual property.
