Source code analysis and expert testimony for software litigation
Software disputes require an expert witness who can analyze source code, trace development history, and communicate complex technical findings to judges and juries. Joe Sremack is a software expert witness who provides source code analysis, repository forensics, and expert testimony for patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, software defect, and code ownership disputes.
Joe Sremack is a software expert witness with a Master's degree in Computer Science and over 20 years of experience analyzing software systems in litigation. He performs multi-language source code review across Python, R, C#, Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, Rust, and other languages. He conducts repository forensics on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps. His analysis has supported patent, trade secret, and software liability cases across multiple industries and 50+ countries. He is the author of AI Forensics (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2026).
A software expert witness provides independent technical analysis that bridges the gap between code and the courtroom:
Systematic examination of codebases to identify copying, common origins, independently developed implementations, and code similarity across multiple languages. Learn more about software analysis services.
Clear, defensible expert reports and testimony that explain complex software concepts to judges, juries, and arbitration panels in depositions, hearings, and trial.
Analysis of Git commit histories, branch structures, access logs, and development timelines to establish authorship, attribution, and chronology of code development.
Examination of software algorithms, business logic, system design, and architectural decisions relevant to patent claims, IP disputes, and liability matters.
Technical guidance on software-related discovery requests, identification of relevant code artifacts, and analysis of opposing party's technical productions.
Technical analysis supporting damages calculations in software IP cases, including assessment of code value, development effort, and competitive impact.
Joe serves as a software expert witness across a broad range of case types where source code and software systems are central to the dispute:
Analysis of software implementations against patent claims, claim construction support, and infringement or non-infringement opinions
Identification of trade secrets in source code, analysis of alleged misappropriation, comparison of proprietary code against competitor implementations
License compliance analysis, GPL/LGPL/Apache/MIT obligation assessment, and disputes over software licensing terms
Substantial similarity analysis, work-for-hire disputes, independent creation defense support, and code attribution
Software vendor performance disputes, SLA violations, failure to deliver agreed functionality, and software quality disputes
Code copying analysis, substantial similarity testing, and assessment of protectable expression versus unprotectable functional elements
Analysis of whether reverse engineering occurred, assessment of clean-room development claims, and decompilation investigations
Analysis of code developed by former employees, timeline reconstruction, work product attribution, and non-compete violation investigations
Root cause analysis for software failures, defect identification, standard of care assessment, and software quality evaluation
Joe's source code analysis spans the full range of languages and platforms encountered in software litigation:
Data science, machine learning, automation, and analytics applications
Enterprise applications, Android development, and .NET systems
Systems programming, embedded systems, and performance-critical applications
Web applications, Node.js backends, and front-end frameworks
Modern systems programming, cloud infrastructure, and mobile development
Database design, stored procedures, data access patterns, and query analysis
Joe's approach to software expert witness work follows a rigorous forensic methodology:
Defensible collection of source code, repositories, build artifacts, deployment configurations, and development environments
Automated and manual analysis of source code structure, dependencies, code quality, and runtime behavior
Systematic comparison methodologies including structural analysis, token-based comparison, and semantic similarity assessment
Development timeline reconstruction from version control history, file metadata, build logs, and deployment records
AI Forensics: Investigation and Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Systems (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2026)
20+ years in digital forensics and data analytics. 500+ investigations across 50+ countries. Expert testimony in state and federal courts, international arbitration, and regulatory proceedings.
M.S. in Computer Science (North Carolina State University). B.A. in Computer Science and Philosophy (The College of Wooster).
CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor), CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), CIPP/US (Certified Information Privacy Professional)
Advisory Partner and leader of the Forensic Data Analytics team at CBIZ. Co-Executive Editor, IAPP AIGP Textbook.
Contact Joe to discuss how a software expert witness can support your litigation, investigation, or dispute.
Get in Touch