I am planning to create a software that looks like and behaves like a calculator I have, in order to sell it.
is this legal ?
if not then what should I do ?
thanks !Is it legal to create software program that looks like an existing calculator?You can sell a program that behaves like an existing calculator. It is not possible for them to patent or trademake math functions. And it probably uses one of the standard input methods (reverse polish or whatever) which again a free to anyone. So you can create a calculator with all the function.
But you can NOT use their name. You would have to give it your own name. And you can not copy exactly the look of their calculator. You would need to make the size, shape and layout slightly different, Even if it is nothing but to separate some of the buttons off into another area (square) that is located slightly differently from the physical calculator.
After that, you should be fine. Building calculator clones is something that many beginning programmers do. They are available all over the place usually as freeware or shareware.
If you decide to SELL the software, I would recommend that you add at least a couple features that or NOT in the original calculator so it makes it difficult for the company to claim it is a direct theft of their product, make sure it is named and looks different from the original, and make sure it works correctly 100% of the time. If it fails someone and they lose a client or fail a class because of an error in your program, you could get sued for a fortune. (That is why most people do their calculators as freeware/shareware.)
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