A leading technology company discovered that a direct competitor appeared to have incorporated proprietary source code and trade-secret technical information into competing software products. The client believed the competitor had obtained access to its development environment and copied or derived its most valuable intellectual property. With the dispute heading to arbitration—and hundreds of millions of dollars at stake—the client needed a forensic partner capable of producing court-quality analysis that could withstand a sophisticated opposing expert.
Law & Forensics was retained, alongside an AmLaw 100 litigation team, to provide digital forensics and expert witness services.
The Challenge
Trade-secret disputes involving source code present layered forensic challenges. Attribution requires proving not only that the competitor's code is similar to the client's, but that the similarity is the result of unauthorized copying rather than independent development. This demands rigorous analysis of access logs, commit histories, credential use, and code provenance—evidence that lives in systems the opposing party controls and that is easily destroyed or obscured.
At the same time, the expert evidence must be presented in a form that a non-technical arbitrator can evaluate. Complex forensic findings must be translated into clear, defensible conclusions without sacrificing technical rigor.
What Law & Forensics Did
The Law & Forensics team conducted a multi-phase forensic investigation.
Repository and Access Forensics. The team examined the client's source code repository infrastructure, reviewing access logs, authentication records, and API activity to establish the timeline and scope of unauthorized access. This analysis documented exactly which files and modules had been accessed, by whom, and when.
Code Comparison Analysis. Using structured code-similarity methodology, the team performed side-by-side analysis of the client's proprietary codebase against the competitor's product. The analysis identified specific modules, algorithms, and implementation patterns that could not plausibly have been independently developed and that bore the hallmarks of direct derivation from the client's code.
Expert Report and Testimony. Law & Forensics produced a comprehensive expert report documenting findings, methodology, and conclusions in terms accessible to the arbitration panel. The team's expert provided live testimony and withstood cross-examination by the opposing expert and counsel.
Outcome
The arbitrator determined that the competitor had misused the client's confidential information and entered a nine-figure award in the client's favor. The case reinforced that sophisticated digital forensic analysis—when properly documented and expertly presented—can prove the most technically complex forms of IP misappropriation.
Related Practice Area
Digital Forensics Services — Forensic Investigations, Computer Forensics, Expert Witness, Server Forensics
