Patent ID: 8499167

Claim:
A machine-implemented process for performing a functionality comparison between a target item of software code and a reference set of at least one reference item of software code, wherein each of the target item and reference item comprises a series of individual software code instructions that are arranged in a line-by-line fashion, the process comprising: preprocessing, by a data processing machine, the target item, including automatically analyzing the target item for a presence of any lines of software code that tend to reduce sensitivity of the comparison, and selecting a resulting set of lines of software code from a remaining portion of the target item to be used for the comparison, wherein each line of the resulting set of lines represents a certain element of functionality of the software code, and wherein each line is defined as a series of consecutive data symbols having a starting point and a termination point; and comparing individually, by a data processing machine, each of the resulting relevant set of lines from the target software item with lines of software code from the reference set, in said line-by-line fashion, to produce a measure of similarity of functionality between the target software item and at least one reference item of software code from the reference set.