Using Source Code Obtained in a Tax Auction

[oldoak2000]

A company in Texas went insolvent, and most of it's assets were seized for tax liens. All of these items went (eventually) to a public auction (tax lien auction) - and were sold to the public. I made it to the auction, and bid on some of the lots of items. Included in some of what I got were hard-drives and tapes, containing software source code that was under development. This software is drivers & applications for a programmable hardware card, that plugs into a pc. I got a bunch of the hardware as well (at auction). All this occurred around 2002. I want to add that none of the IP or products were entangled with any military or top-secret contracts, so there is no worry about misapplication there.
The company no longer exists, and it's 'empty shell' (OTCBB-), without any assets, was eventually acquired by some overseas Chinese Healthcare company - a completely unrelated business.

My question is, can I use this source code (legally) to write and sell NEW drivers/applications to include with the hardware cards - to be sold as a new product?

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you purchased only items of hardware at the auction, then you did not purchase the intellectual property rights to whatever was on the hardware and would not automatically gain intellectual property rights to software that may be subject to copyright or patents. We have no way of vetting the material for possible claims by other parties.

[Scott67]

I would have to inject that it is almost inconceivable that partially completed software for 8 year old devices would be of any value. Assuming the hardware itself is not obsolete, any programmer who could take the partially completed source code and make it work, could almost certainly write it from scratch faster and cheaper. (I have personally done both and managed others in doing both). Also, source code from a company that went insolvent is immediately suspect. There are reasons (which of course we don't know) that the company went insolvent. Lack of sound software development processes is, in my opinion, likely involved in there somewhere.

[KeyWestDan]

If it was a tax auction then the defunct company has NO RIGHTS whatsoever to any property auctioned off.

If you purchased hardware, you have the right to use the software as if you are the owner, because you are.

The software I am rather certain, was a work for hire, and owned by the corporation. No corporation can sue anybody after two years from the date it was dissolved. If it was liquidated in a tax auction, they can't even do that.

Any intellectual property "concealed" in the hardware, so to speak, is INCLUDED in the hardware. Any independent intellectual property claims are defunct. If the intellectual property was not owned by the corporation, it was the responsibility of the owner to remove it from the property of the corporation long before a tax auction.

I'd like our resident experts to explain to me or you, WHO exactly you owe any duty to. Where does it say that you have a duty to research any alternate possible owners following a purchase at a tax auction.

First, if the source code is embedded in the product you eventually complete and release to market, how would anyone even know what the source code is and how could they claim it, especially when it probably will be substantially rewritten by that point. NOBODY would be able to do that. NOBODY would have standing to take that to court.

Obsolete depends on the market and competition.

If the source code can be used is an entirely different matter. It depends on how well you know the language and how well commented the code is. It would help if there was documentation for the product. Perhaps there is documentation on those drives. Perhaps you might even have the autocad routing diagrams and information for the printed circuits. You might even have the circuit design and routing programs too, but you are not likely to have the dongle or key.

Hardware and software are two totally different things. First, there needs to be a design program to design the circuit. If the circuit is not already auto routed, the software to do a single layer, one or two sided board is at minimum $10,000.

Gee, what do I know about this? Let's see. I owned and operated a software and hardware development business with many hundreds of thousands of dollars in SBIR contracts from the DOD, DOE, Education, and CDC. I wrote all the proposals that were screened by boards of people that were experts in their fields and mostly Phd's. I was the principal investigator, directed highly paid electrical engineers and software staff, wrote all the reports, and much more. We wrote application and embedded software for hardware products. We burned eproms by the hundreds. We designed and auto-routed dozens of circuits. I coordinated production of the boards, including silk screening, etching, drill all the holes for through-hole components, auto picking and installation of surface mount parts, and all the rest of it. To say nothing of the national ISP I founded and sold off.

So, anyone, please try to trump that.

However, I feel for the defunct company. I have $135,000 invested in the programming of an online game and was never able to finish it.