Complex software litigation often involves several software systems, each comprised of millions of lines of source code. A trusted partner is needed to review, analyze, compare and reconstruct one or more of the systems in question, in order to compare and understand how those systems may be related to one another or may relate to a patent or trade secret.

Litigation involving misappropriation or theft of source code can be very challenging because source code is an ever-changing universe of updates and modifications. Some modifications may or may not have been documented or recorded, and others may or may not have been destroyed or preserved. Additionally, the parties are very reluctant to give access to their highly valued source code, particularly when the typical case involves allegations between actual or potential competitors.

Open source licenses and code issues are becoming harder and harder to avoid as they proliferate through many of the most commonly used software systems and programs in use today. While some of these issues require only the proper understanding of the license and how to properly credit or give notice of the used of open source, many others involve highly material and highly valuable ownership or right-to-use issues.

Source code is critical to the discussion of both software copyrights and software patents. Likewise, while software patents focus more on the functionality and systems of the software, software patent litigation quickly focuses in on the source code to try to understand how the alleged infringing software satisfies the claims of the software patent.