Reverse Engineering (Score 1)

I think you've confused yourself. Reverse engineering isn't much different from duplicating through analysis. Reverse engineering means you analyze the results of a process/algorithm and write your own process to recreate it. Sounds like duplicating through analysis to me.

Another thing: it's perfectly legal. So long as you can prove you developed your process independently of the other, there is no patent issue involved. This is why, among other things, MS can't stop SMB's being ported to Linux.

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"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. "