Oracle Corp. has lodged new charges on Friday against rival SAP AG, adding more details about an alleged conspiracy to steal Oracle’s intellectual property from its customer service Web site. The latest accusations include a claim that the SAP unit at the center of the lawsuit copied Oracle’s fix to make certain computer programs worked following the recent early switch to daylight savings time and then posted the solution that incorporated typos Oracle afterward corrected, as its own. Oracle had earlier filed lawsuit against SAP in March, accusing the German software maker’s business unit in Texas of unlawfully using customer log-ins to pilfer copyrighted matters from Oracle’s password-protected Web site.
In its amended complaint originally filed in US District Court in San Francisco, Oracle alleged that SAP broke into its computers in January to heist a software update addressing this year’s change to an earlier start for Daylight Savings Time. Oracle further alleged that a SAP subsidiary that services Oracle software subsequently posted an identical solution. According to the complaint SAP’s recommended repairs even contained a few minor errors that Oracle later fixed.
Oracle has also slammed claims that TomorrowNow used credentials from Yazaki North America, an Oracle customer that stopped Oracle support, to download 11,000 ‘distinct’ Oracle materials, including some 1,500 items for which Yazaki itself had no license. Oracle has lamented that this indicated SAP’s objective to use specific customer accounts to illegally download a wide range of copyrighted material.
Even though Oracle still maximum of its revenue from database software, it has surfaced as a potential threat in the business applications market by purchasing many of the industry’s other players. Oracle’s lawsuit comes after the company spent years and billions of dollars acquiring applications competitors, including PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel Systems. These acquisitions have made Oracle the second largest provider of business applications after SAP, Waldorf, Germany. Moreover, the scuffle over support and maintenance money is grossly insignificant. Oracle on average charges customers 22 to 23 percent of license cost annually for support, and counts on that revenue.
In the meanwhile, reacting to the recent development SAP has stated that it will ‘set the record straight regarding Oracle’s allegations’ and will vigorously defend the amended law suit filed by its rival Oracle. In an e-mailed optimistic response said, ‘Oracle today filed its long-promised amended complaint in US District Court in San Francisco, after repeated delays. Oracle now apparently has registered some copyrights, so it adds a copyright claim. And, it adds a breach of contract claim based on previously stated allegations. SAP plans to respond to the amended complaint by July 2, 2007, in accordance with the Court’s schedule.’
