And assuming it was somwhow reverse-engineered or compromised through nefarious means, would it kill scoring?
No more than reverse-engineering of the Coca-Cola formula would kill Coke.
Industry and consumer acceptance, as well as distribution system, would still be there.
One could not obtain any intellectual property protection on a clone, as it would have been previously in public use and on sale, thus preventing a patent, not an orginal work, thus precluding a copyright, and any us or reference to FICO in its marketing would be a misappropriation of their trademark.
How would one "prove" to customers that it was the same without also disclosing the innards of the clone, thus totally putting it in the public domain for all to reap the competitive benefit of their reverse engineering for free?
The algorithms also constantly change, making the reverse-engineering a never-ending quest and expense.
It might funnel off some business or reduce the cost, but the need for the scoring would remain.
All of these were considered when FICO made the decision years ago to forgo patent protection, and retain their algorithms as a trade secret.
