Mike Harrison wrote: > >These M*therf**kers copied one of our PIC chips we use in a commercial > >product! Lost thousands of dollars due to the fact that they're > >selling the 100% copied product cheap under another brand name. The > >development of the firmware inside this chip have cost us one year. > > > >Maybe it's wise not to mention the above address anymore. It will > >definately help some PIC coders on this list too. > > > One handy hint that has swung one legal case I know of.... Build in > some hidden functionality to the product - some bizarre combination of > buttons or whatever that performs no useful function and will not be > found by accident. > This provides a very easy way to prove that a rival product uses > ripped-off code. Very good idea. Something like the 'easter eggs' in Windows, or some cell phones (like the Siemens). -- Friendly Regards /"\ \ / Tjaart van der Walt X ASCII RIBBON CAMPAIGN mailto:tjaart@wasp.co.za / \ AGAINST HTML MAIL |--------------------------------------------------| | WASP International | |R&D Engineer : GSM peripheral services development| |--------------------------------------------------| |SMS mailto: tjaart@sms.wasp.co.za (160 chars max)| | http://www.wasp.co.za/~tjaart/index.html | |Voice: +27-(0)11-622-8686 Fax: +27-(0)11-622-8973| | WGS-84 : 26¡10.52'S 28¡06.19'E | |--------------------------------------------------|