An SAP spokesman told eWEEK Feb. 3 that
the enterprise application maker will begin filing motions in federal district
court in an effort to lower the $1.3
billion fine a jury ordered Nov. 23, 2010, in the Oracle copyright violation
case.
SAP also said that, failing a reduction in
the fine through the motions, it may also appeal the decision.
In the original litigation, Oracle claimed that more than 8 million instances
of its enterprise support software worth $2.15 billion were stolen, stored on SAP’s servers and used without
its permission.
In that three-week-long trial, the eight-person jury in Oakland,
Calif., ruled that SAP,
the world’s largest enterprise application maker, was guilty of stealing
software and documentation and copyright infringement with Oracle, its longtime
market rival.
Oracle, in its lawsuit filed in 2007, claimed that SAP — through
a U.S.-based affiliate division called TomorrowNow — illegally downloaded more
than 8 million instances of its customer-support software and hundreds of
thousands of pages of supporting documentation from one of its Websites, then
used those tools to lure some 350 customers away from Oracle and over to SAP.
For more, read the eWeek article: SAP Maneuvers to Reduce $13B Restitution to Oracle.