diff --git a/drivers/misc/altera-stapl/altera.c b/drivers/misc/altera-stapl/altera.c
index ef83a9078646..d2ed3b9728b7 100644
--- a/drivers/misc/altera-stapl/altera.c
+++ b/drivers/misc/altera-stapl/altera.c
@@ -2176,8 +2176,7 @@ static int altera_get_note(u8 *p, s32 program_size,
 			key_ptr = &p[note_strings +
 					get_unaligned_be32(
 					&p[note_table + (8 * i)])];
-			if ((strncasecmp(key, key_ptr, strlen(key_ptr)) == 0) &&
-						(key != NULL)) {
+			if (key && !strncasecmp(key, key_ptr, strlen(key_ptr))) {
 				status = 0;
 
 				value_ptr = &p[note_strings +