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I was always confused about patents, copyrights and licenses when it comes to hardware. Surely if you do a (clean-room) implementation of hardware that is inte

• Teever 5y ago
  From my understand this is correct to a point but a more pressing issue is that some specific implementations of algorithms in hardware may be under patent. If this is the case it means a competitor can use an alternative design that is less efficient at the cost of space/heat but that can result in substantially less competitive product.
• shakna 5y ago
  > Isn't that how we got the IBM PC Clones? IBM encouraging developers to target their BIOS and not the hardware, and BIOS clean room designs is where we got the IBM PC clones - but that's still the world of software. (Note: IBM managed to take clones by Eagle Computer and Corona Data Systems off the market because the software wasn't a clean room design). The IBM PC's pluggable design with already existing standard ports made it easy to build clones, because it wasn't the hardware that was being interfaced with. If you could clone the BIOS and have that speak to your components however you wanted, then you could make an IBM compatible.