SAP to Pay Oracle in Largest US Copyright Infringement Case

SAP is being ordered to pay Oracle, Inc. $1.3 billion dollars in damages after infringing on Oracle’s copyrights to software and stealing customer support contracts. According to the suit, SAP acquired and resold illegally Oracle’s popular database software products and then contacting their customers to undercut support contracts – which are more valuable to Oracle than the actual software.

The actual infringement is being based on SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow’s illegal copying of the software and reproducing of the product manuals, a fact that SAP did not deny in court of law. The argument came up when SAP insisted that the infringement damages were not as great as Oracle claimed in their original suit. Former CEO Léo Apotheker was in place at the time of the illegal activity, and now resides at computer giant Hewlett-Packard.