本文參酌美國電腦程式還原工程與智慧財產權法制關係之相關判例法，探討利用電腦程式還原工程所衍生之著作權法、專利法、營業秘密法等相關法律議題。電腦程式還原工程解譯或反組譯的過程，若只是瞭解程式中之觀念與原則，而創作出與原電腦程式之交互使用與相容之產品時，應可成立「合理使用」。但專利法並無明文承認還原工程之合法性，因此電腦程式還原工程行為人可能侵害該電腦程式之專利權。雖然我國營業秘密法對電腦程式還原工程並無明文規定，但若第三人合法取得電腦程式產品內容含營業秘密法保護之營業秘密，其秘密性隨著該產品公開上市而消失，因此第三人當然可以對電腦程式產品進行還原工程。由此觀之，著作權法、營業秘密法與專利法等法，對電腦程式還原工程的合法性並未具統一性，換言之，電腦程式還原工程雖不違反營業秘密法，而電腦程式還原工程利用者亦可主張「合理使用」，但可能違反專利法。依美國論者之論點，若承認電腦程式還原工程在智慧財產權法制下合法化的重要性，則智慧財產權法對還原工程應有一致性規範，否則著作權法、營業秘密法與專利法對還原工程做不同的規範，可能導致電腦程式還原工程因在智慧財產權法制下之適法性受挑戰，而阻礙還原工程的執行。

Through studying U.S. Intellectual Property Law cases specifically address reverse engineering in the computer software context, this article will analyze patent, copyright, and trade secret law issues involving reverse engineering computer software. Reverse engineering is standard industry practice in many fields, including the computer industry. One of the purposes of software reverse engineering is achieving interoperability. However, the legality of two common forms of software reverse engineering, namely, decompilation and disassembly of object code, has been challenged on trade secret, copyright, and patent law theories. When the only way to obtain the ideas and functional elements of a computer program is by disassembling the object code, some courts in the United States have held that this disassembly is fair use as a matter of law. In other words, software reverse engineering is often found to be fair use in the copyright context when it is done to achieve compatibility and interoperability between products and when only an intermediate copy is made in the process. On the other hand, no software reverse engineering right exists in patent law and patent law does not provide a reverse engineering defense to infringement, whereas trade secret laws do allow software reverse engineering since the legal right to reverse engineer a trade secret is so well-established in courts and legal theories. As patent, copyright, and trade secret law each treat reverse engineering differently, software reverse engineering may lose protection altogether under Intellectual Property Law. Therefore, commentators in the United States suggest the creation of a coherent reverse engineering policy and advocate a coherent treatment of software reverse engineering across intellectual property law.