SAP seeks Oracle gagging order

A gagging order has been requested by German financial software giant SAP
against its rival Oracle.

SAP filed an order to prevent Oracle lawyers speaking to journalists. The
software business said media coverage on an upcoming copyright case between the
warring companies could unfairly influence jurors’ opinions,
ZDNet.com
reports.

The copyright dispute is over specialist software business TomorrowNow which
SAP bought from Oracle in 2005, and closed in 2008.

Oracle claims TomorrowNow employees, who now work at SAP, stole software and
technical information from it, which it labeled as “corporate theft… on the
grandest scale”.

SAP lawyers used a
New
York Times article on its former CEO Leo Apotheker’s
appointment as CEO of HP to support its request. In the article the author wrote
that “as a member of the SAP executive board, Mr Apotheker clearly knew about
the theft”.

SAP accepted it had infringed on copyright liability, however, it disputes it
intentionally infringed Oracle’s intellectual property, and the extent of
damages sought by Oracle.

“Although TomorrowNow did make mistakes in its operations, [Oracle’s] damage
claims are vastly exaggerated,” SAP said in a previous trial brief.

“Plaintiffs have asserted a claim for billions [of dollars], where their true
damages measure in the tens of millions.”

The TomorrowNow copyright hearing is due to begin on 1 November.

Further reading:

SAP
pushes for jury decision on Oracle TomorrowNow lawsuit

SAP
and Oracle fail to agree on TomorrowNow in court

SAP
asks for mediator in Oracle row