S.A.F.E.

What S.A.F.E. does

S.A.F.E. (SAFE Corporation, dba Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering) is a privately held, Cupertino, California-based developer of patented software forensics tools used primarily in intellectual property litigation. Founded by Bob Zeidman and spun off from Zeidman Consulting in 2008, the company has operated profitably since inception with a stated 1-10 employee footprint and no external funding. Its flagship product is CodeSuite, a multi-tool platform incorporating BitMatch, CodeCross, CodeMatch, CodeDiff, CodeCLOC, SourceDetective, FileCount, and FileIsolate for comparing source code and binary executable code to detect plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trade secret theft. The technology is protected by seven issued US patents (including US 7,503,035 and US 9,043,375) covering core comparison algorithms, commented-out code detection, and Internet-based commonality searching. The methodology is documented in peer-reviewed journals and the textbook 'The Software IP Detective's Handbook,' and the tools have been cited in 70-100+ court cases including Oracle v. Google, Brocade v. A10 Networks, ConnectU v. Facebook, and SplitFish v. Bannco.

The product portfolio extends beyond CodeSuite into adjacent offerings: CodeSuite-LT (fixed-term unlimited use at $2K-$5K), CodeSuite-AC (academic tier), CodeSuite-MP (multiprocessing), DocMatch (document plagiarism detection), CodeScreener (online screening service at $100 per report supporting 25+ programming languages), CodeMeasure (now free), CodeGrid (distributed grid computing), and an HTML Preprocessor. The company sells direct via its website with evaluation licenses, runs online and in-person certification training (including MCLE-accredited courses), and has trained 40+ experts worldwide.

Revenue is generated through a mix of usage-based licensing ($10-$400 per megabyte examined), annual or semi-annual term licenses (CodeSuite enterprise at $100K/year, LT tiers at $2K-$5K), academic pricing, training and certification fees, and ancillary services such as Online IP Screening for social games. The customer base comprises IP law firms, expert witnesses, technology companies, and academia. Go-to-market is sales-led, relying on content marketing, trade publication coverage (IEEE Spectrum, Law Technology News), a certified expert ecosystem, and direct website sales with no channel partners or resellers.

Name

S.A.F.E.

Legal name

SAFE Corporation

Website

https://safe-corp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

S.A.F.E. is a privately held Cupertino-based developer of patented software forensics tools (CodeSuite) used by IP law firms, expert witnesses, and technology companies to detect software plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trade secret theft in litigation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Software Forensics / Intellectual Property Litigation Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Testing Laboratories and Services (54138), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Testing Laboratories (8734), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Forensics & Malware Analysis (EDAOAIAJ)

Keywords

• Software forensics
• Intellectual property litigation
• Source code comparison
• Plagiarism detection
• Trade secret theft analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Cupertino

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses: CodeSuite licenses sold on a usage-based model (per megabyte examined) and term license basis. Products include CodeSuite, CodeSuite-LT, CodeSuite-AC, and DocMatch with various pricing tiers.
2. Term Licenses: Unlimited-use annual or semi-annual licenses for CodeSuite products at fixed prices.
3. Training and Certification: Online and in-person CodeSuite certification training courses for software experts and IP attorneys. Also includes MCLE credit courses in software IP.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

S.A.F.E. sells patented software forensics products (CodeSuite and its component tools) that compare source code and binary executable code to detect plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trade secret theft for IP litigation and valuation. The flagship CodeSuite platform includes BitMatch, CodeCLOC, CodeCross, CodeDiff, CodeMatch, CodeGrid, and SourceDetective, sold via per-megabyte usage licenses, fixed-term unlimited subscriptions (CodeSuite-LT, CodeSuite-AC, DocMatch), and free evaluation downloads. The firm also provides training, certification, and an online screening service (CodeScreener).

Product overview

S.A.F.E. (Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering) Corporation offers a comprehensive suite of patented software forensic analysis tools for intellectual property litigation. The core product is CodeSuite, a multi-tool platform that incorporates BitMatch, CodeCLOC, CodeCross, CodeDiff, CodeMatch, FileCount, FileIsolate, and SourceDetective for comparing source code and executable code to detect plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trade secret theft. Related products include CodeSuite-LT (lite version), CodeSuite-AC (academic version), CodeSuite-MP (multiprocessing), DocMatch (document plagiarism detection), and CodeScreener (online service). Supporting utilities include CodeGrid (distributed computing), HTML Preprocessor, FileCount, FileIsolate, and CodeSplit. The company also provides training, certification, and Online IP Screening services. CodeMeasure, once a paid product, is now offered free of charge.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CodeSuite Primary suite of patented tools for comparing computer source code and executable code to detect plagiarism, pinpoint copyright infringement, highlight trade secret theft, and measure intellectual property. Incorporates BitMatch, CodeCLOC, CodeCross, CodeDiff, CodeMatch, FileCount, FileIsolate, and SourceDetective functions. Pricing is usage-based per megabyte examined.
• CodeSuite-LT Lite version of CodeSuite offering BitMatch, CodeCross, CodeDiff, and CodeMatch for unlimited use over a 3-, 6-, or 12-month fixed-term license; includes free FileCount and FileIsolate tools and supports SourceDetective integration.
• CodeSuite-AC (Academic Version) Academic version of CodeSuite providing software forensic analysis capabilities to educational and research institutions at reduced subscription pricing with 6-month or 1-year unlimited license terms.
• CodeSuite-MP Multiprocessing version of CodeSuite allowing multiple jobs to run on a single multicore computer with near-linear speedup across cores; no special maintenance required.
• DocMatch Plagiarism detection tool that applies CodeMatch technology to general documents such as articles, papers, and novels. Available as a full professional version (with Internet searching and statistics) and an LT version (for occasional users); priced as a 1-year fixed license.
• CodeScreener Online Service Online subscription-based software plagiarism detection service that compares source code or compiled object code using CodeSuite forensic software as the back-end. Supports 25 programming languages through an interactive web interface and charges per report.
• CodeSuite Training and Certification Online and in-person training and certification programs for software experts and IP attorneys to learn CodeSuite methodology; includes MCLE credit courses for software IP and produces certified experts eligible for the SAFE expert witness database.
• Online IP Screening Service Proactive IP screening service that monitors online IP for copyright infringement using SAFE's proprietary online preprocessing tools combined with CodeSuite analysis; targeting social games and digital content markets.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 100 successful court cases with CodeSuite analysis
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature10 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Professor Michael Flynn (Stanford University)minorOthers · 26 January 2010Stanford University Professor Emeritus Michael Flynn serves as a technical advisor to SAFE Corporation. He has worked with Bob Zeidman over the course of their careers and provides guidance on forensic technology development. Flynn emphasizes the importance of IP protection tools in software technology.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• LexisNexis: Legal and IP research and analytics platform with products serving IP litigation workflows. Comparable as a strategic acquirer and as a broad incumbent with overlapping legal/IP customer base to S.A.F.E.'s law-firm customers.
• Synopsys (Black Duck): Broad software composition analysis and code security platform acquired via Black Duck. Compares to S.A.F.E. on code-level analysis for IP/OSS/license-compliance use cases, but as part of a much larger portfolio addressing DevSecOps rather than IP litigation.
• Turnitin: Dominant academic plagiarism-detection incumbent serving thousands of universities. Overlaps with S.A.F.E.'s DocMatch functionality but operates at vastly larger scale across text rather than specialized in code forensics.
• CAST Software: Software analysis platform for application intelligence, structural quality, and code measurement. Overlaps with S.A.F.E.'s CodeCLOC/CodeMeasure capabilities for measuring software evolution and IP, but at enterprise-platform scale rather than forensics specialization.

Direct peers

• JPlag: Open-source software plagiarism detection tool originating from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Directly comparable tokenization- and algorithm-based approach for detecting code reuse in academic settings.
• Codequiry: Commercial source-code and binary plagiarism detection platform serving academic and enterprise customers. Offers similar CodeSuite-style source code and binary comparison capabilities as a cloud service.
• MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity): Stanford-developed academic code-similarity detector widely used in universities to detect software plagiarism. Direct functional competitor to CodeMatch/CodeCross in the source-code plagiarism-detection category, though lacking S.A.F.E.'s courtroom-grade positioning and IP.
• Copyleaks: AI-based plagiarism and code similarity detection platform used by enterprises and educational institutions. Closely comparable to S.A.F.E. on source-code and document plagiarism detection, though delivered as a modern SaaS rather than on-prem forensic tooling.
• PlagiarismCheck: Plagiarism detection platform used by academic institutions and enterprises. Overlaps with S.A.F.E.'s DocMatch product line for document-level similarity and plagiarism screening.

Others

• Perforce (Helix): Developer tooling and version-control platform with code comparison and IP-related workflows. Adjacent comparability as a tooling provider that interacts with code diffing and audit — adjacent rather than directly competitive to S.A.F.E.'s forensic tools.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/bob_zeidman
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/safe-corporation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about S.A.F.E.